(tamp  Paaljtngfmt 


AT 


Mount  Vernon  on  the  Potomac 


/ 

JAMES  HOSMER/  PENNIMAN,  LITT.  D. 

' .... 


GEORGE   WASHINGTON 


AT 


Mount  Vernon  on  the  Potomac 


TO   GIVE   A   CLEARER   IDEA   OF  THE  CHARACTER 

OF   WASHINGTON   IS  TO   SET  A   HIGHER 

STANDARD   FOR   AMERICAN 

PATRIOTISM 


PUBLISHED    BY  THB 

MOUNT  VERNON  LADIES '  ASSOCIATION   OP  THB   UNION , 
MOUNT  VEHNON,  FAIRFAX  COUNTY,  VIRGINIA. 


George  Washington 

AT 

Mount  Vernon  on  the  Potomac 

James  Hosmer  Penniman,  Litt.D. 

On  the  Potomac,  a  few  miles  below  the  city  of 
Washington,  has  been  standing  for  nearly  two  centuries 
a  mansion  which  is  a  shrine  of  humanity,  for  Mount 
Vernon  is  more  than  a  national  memorial.  Vessels 
from  all  parts  of  the  world  dip  their  colors  and  toll 
their  bells  as  they  pass  the  place,  and  distinguished 
pilgrims  of  many  races  lay  wreaths  at  the  tomb  of 
him  who  devoted  all  he  was  and  all  he  had  to  making 
freedom  secure  for  mankind. 

George  Washington,  Mount  Vernon,  Potomac; 
what  other  three  names  can  be  found  so  closely  asso 
ciated  and  of  such  euphony  and  historic  importance! 
There  is  no  exaggeration  in  saying  that  Mount  Vernon 
is  the  most  famous  home  in  the  world.  Nowhere  else 
do  we  get  so  close  to  such  an  illustrious  man.  The 
mansions  in  which  Washington  lived  as  President,  in 
New  York  and  Philadelphia,  have  long  ago  been  torn 
down,  for  there  was  no  Ann  Pamela  Cunningham  to 
protect  them.  At  Cambridge,  Harlem,  Newburgh, 
Morristown  and  Valley  Forge  we  are  fortunate  in  having 
his  headquarters  still  preserved,  but  in  these  places 
he  was  General  Washington,  Commander-in-Chief.  It 
is  at  Mount  Vernon  alone  that  Washington  comes  down 
from  his  heroic  pedestal  and  reveals  himself  to  us  in 
the  majestic  simplicity  of  the  Virginia  farmer,  the 
Cincinnatus  of  the  West.  Soldiers  of  both  sides  remem- 


bered  only  that  they  were  Americans  as  they  stood  at 
the  tomb  of  the  great  American  during  that  fratricidal 
war  which  would  have  caused  him  so  much  grief.  Sec 
tional  feeling  has  no  place  at  the  home  of  this  Virginian, 
who  became  the  first  American  in  every  sense  of  the 
word  first.  The  expression  "First  in  war,  first  in  peace, 
and  first  in  the  hearts  of  his  countrymen,"  falls  glibly 
enough  from  our  lips,  but  at  Mount  Vernon  one  should 
ponder  on  these  words  and  consider  in  how  many  ways 
this  great  man  was  first.  "First  in  war,"  he  was  always 
the  central  figure  during  the  eight  years  of  the  Revolu 
tion,  but  even  before  he  was  Commander-in-Chief  he 
was  first  in  war,  as  well  as  the  first  American,  when  he 
made  what  is  considered  the  most  eloquent  speech  in 
our  history:  "I  will  raise  a  thousand  men  at  my  own 
expense  and  march  at  their  head  to  the  relief  of  Boston." 
March  Virginians  to  the  relief  of  Boston!  Show  me 
if  you  can  an  earlier  expression  of  more  practical  Amer 
icanism.  How  did  he  know  that  he  could  get  those 
men?  Because  he  was  assured  of  the  devotion  and 
patriotism  of  his  neighbors,  to  many  of  whom  he  was 
always  the  widow  Washington's  boy  "George."  How 
Washington's  heart  warmed  to  those  riflemen  at  Cam 
bridge  when  they  told  him  they  were  from  the  right 
bank  of  the  Potomac!  At  Mount  Vernon,  where  Wash 
ington  was  pre-eminently  "First  in  Peace,"  the  old 
weather-vane  which  surmounts  his  mansion  is  appro 
priately  the  dove  bearing  the  olive  branch. 

Washington  was  not  common  clay,  nor  is  Mount 
Vernon  common  earth.  He  could  not  have  been  such 
a  patriot  if  he  had  not  loved  the  place  so  much,  because 
affection  for  the  actual  ground  and  wood  and  stone 
of  the  home  is  the  most  natural  foundation  of  love  of 
country. 

The  Mount  Vernon  Ladies'  Association,  incor 
porated  in  1856,  is  the  oldest  patriotic  organization  of 

6 


women  in  the  United  States.  Until  Mount  Vernon 
came  into  its  possession  the  estate  had  had  no  other 
owners  but  Washingtons.  The  far-seeing  founder  of 
the  Association,  Ann  Pamela  Cunningham,  who  held 
the  office  of  Regent  for  twenty  years,  wrote  in  1874: 

"Ladies,  the  home  of  Washington  is  in  your  charge; 
see  to  it  that  you  keep  it  the  home  of  Washington. 
Let  no  irreverent  hand  change  it;  no  vandal  hands 
desecrate  it  with  the  fingers  of  progress!  Those  who 
go  to  the  home  in  which  he  lived  and  died,  wish  to 
see  in  what  he  lived  and  died!  Let  one  spot  in  this 
grand  country  of  ours  be  saved  from  change!  Upon 
you  rests  this  duty.  When  the  Centennial  comes, 
bringing  with  it  its  thousands  from  the  ends  of  the 
earth,  to  whom  the  home  of  Washington  will  be  the 
place  of  places  in  our  country,  let  them  see  that,  though 
we  slay  our  forests,  remove  our  dead,  pull  down  our 
churches,  remove  from  home  to  home  till  the  hearth 
stone  seems  to  have  no  resting-place  in  America — let 
them  see  that  we  do  know  how  to  care  for  the  home 

of  our  Hero!" 

m 
Wisely   directed   energy,    unselfish   devotion,    and 

reverent  patriotism—these  conspicuous  qualities  of  Wash 
ington  have  been  manifested  in  an  eminent  degree  by 
the  Ladies  of  Mount  Vernon  in  making  permanent  for 
us  his  hallowed  shrine.  Long  continued  and  loving 
care  is  everywhere  evident,  but  the  extent  of  the  work 
has  been  carefully  concealed.  Nothing  is  offensively 
new,  and  this  is  remarkable,  because  it  has  been  neces 
sary  to  do  so  much.  When  the  ladies  acquired  the 
property  the  estate  was  run  down  and  the  mansion  was 
nearly  empty.  Edward  Everett  said  in  1858:  "No  one 
who  has  visited  the  venerable  spot — who  has  looked 
upon  the  weather-beaten  building  and  its  uninviting 
approaches,  upon  the  falling  columns  and  corroded 


pavement  of  the  portico,  the  ruinous  offices,  the  un- 
floored  summer-house;  the  conservatory,  of  which  a 
portion  remains  as  it  was  left  by  the  fire  of  1832;  the 

'spot  where  once  a  garden  smiled, 

And  still  where  many  a  garden  flower  grows  wild,' 

the  ground  relapsing  into  the  roughness  of  nature;  and, 
above  all,  the  raw  incompleteness,  the  irreverent  ex 
posure,  and  the  premature  and  untidy  decay  that  reign 
about  the  tomb — but  must  bid  God-speed  to  the  efforts 
of  these  noble  women  and  their  worthy  sisters  in  every 
part  of  the  land,  who  have  determined  that  this  public 
scandal,  this  burning  shame,  shall  cease."  The  mansion 
and  its  surrounding  buildings  were  uninhabitable.  The 
roof  of  the  portico  had  to  be  held  up  by  temporary 
props  throughout  its  entire  length.  The  barn  had  not 
been  roofed  since  the  time  of  Washington,  the  roads 
were  impassable,  and  the  whole  estate  was  a  chaotic 
ruin.  The  two  rules  of  the  Mount  Vernon  Ladies  were: 
no  debts  and  do  thoroughly  whatever  is  to  be  done; 
and,  so  carefully  were  these  observed,  that  in  1890  the 
Secretary  of  the  Association  was  able  to  refer  to  "the 
little  band  of  women  who  have  quietly  worked  through 
all  these  years,  and  who  have  learned  that  woman's 
lesson  is  to  'sit  and  wait.'  As  we  have  'waited'  we  have 
seen  our  beloved  Mount  Vernon  grow  in  grace  and 
beauty  slowly  but  surely — here  a  nail  and  there  a  brick, 
to-day  a  bit  of  pavement,  to-morrow  a  road,  now  a 
fence,  again  a  roof— until  now  I  Now,  every  ruin  is 
gone,  every  building  restored." 

Reassembling  the  original  furniture  and  relics  is, 
to  my  mind,  the  most  wonderful  of  all  the  things  that 
the  Ladies  of  Mount  Vernon  have  done.  They  have 
made  the  mansion  a  museum  of  priceless  treasures,  and 
it  is  the  duty  of  patriotic  Americans  to  see  to  it  that 
everything  that  used  to  be  at  Mount  Vernon  is  returned 

8 


there.  A  further  idea  of  the  extraordinary  work  of  the 
ladies  may  be  formed  from  the  following  instances  of 
it:  To  prevent  landslides,  which  caused  anxiety  even 
in  Washington's  time,  the  hill  has  been  tunnelled  and 
twenty  thousand  gallons  of  water  a  day  are  drawn  off. 
Washington  remarked  that  the  Mount  Vernon  land 
has  "an  understratum  of  hard  clay  impervious  to  water, 
which,  penetrating  that  far  and  unable  to  descend  lower, 
sweeps  off  the  upper  soil."  Washington  was  anxious 
about  the  possibility  of  fire  at  Mount  Vernon,  and  that 
his  fears  were  not  without  cause  is  shown  by  an  entry 
in  his  diary,  January  5,  1788:  "About  8  o'clock  in  the 
evening  we  were  alarmed,  and  the  house  a  good  deal 
endangered  by  the  soot  of  one  of  the  chimneys  taking 
fire  and  burning  furiously,  discharging  great  flakes  of 
fire  on  the  roof;  but,  happily,  by  having  aid  at  hand  and 
proper  exertion  no  damage  ensued."  He  wrote  his 
overseer:  "I  beg  you  will  make  my  people  (about  the 
Mansion  house)  be  careful  of  the  fire;  for  it  is  no  un 
common  thing  for  them  to  be  running  from  one  house 
to  another  in  cold,  windy  nights  with  sparks  of  fire 
flying  and  dropping  as  they  go  along,  without  paying 
the  least  attention  to  the  consequences."  The  Ladies 
of  Mount  Vernon  have  taken  every  precaution  to  make 
the  mansion  as  secure  from  fire  as  a  wooden  structure 
can  be.  The  buildings  are  warmed  by  the  hot  water 
system,  and  the  mains  come  from  a  remote  underground 
boiler-room.  Mr.  Edison  himself  directed  the  low 
voltage  lights.  Chemical  and  steam  fire  engines  are 
ready  for  instant  use,  and  guards  maintain  a  constant 
vigil.  Powerful  electric  pumps  supply  water  from  an 
artesian  well  and  there  is  sanitary  drainage.  The 
marsh  of  twelve  acres,  malaria  from  which  made  it 
necessary  for  the  Washingtons  to  consume  much  Pe 
ruvian  bark,  has  been  made  a  meadow  filled  with  clover, 
and  the  river  has  been  excluded  and  the  shores  protected 

9 


from  erosion  by  a  sea  wall.  In  order  to  get  bricks 
mellowed  by  age  for  the  haha  wall,  they  were  brought 
from  the  ruins  of  another  old  mansion.  Flagstones 
have  been  imported  from  the  quarries  of  Lord  Lonsdale, 
at  St.  Bees  Head,  near  White  Haven,  England,  whence 
Washington  obtained  the  original  stones,  and  an  extra 
supply  was  secured  to  provide  for  future  needs. 

Well  might  the  Ladies  of  Mount  Vernon  adopt 
Washington's  motto,  Exitus  acta  probat,  for  the  result 
has  proved  the  excellence  of  their  deeds.  I  have  visited 
many  of  the  show  places  of  the  world,  and  I  do  not 
know  another  where  good  taste  has  been  so  combined 
with  business  efficiency.  There  is  abundant  elegance 
and  refinement,  but  the  predominant  impression  is  that 
everything  is  intended  to  serve  a  useful  purpose  and 
is  adequate  for  the  work.  Mount  Vernon  does  not 
look,  as  so  many  old  places  do,  as  if  it  had  outlived  its 
usefulness,  and  in  fact  its  usefulness  will  always  be  of 
the  highest  order.  Without  the  noble  deeds  which 
were  planned  here  the  beautiful  buildings  of  our  national 
capital  would  never  have  existed,  and  those  who  see 
the  work  of  our  government  going  on  at  Washington 
will  always  find  patriotic  inspiration  in  visiting  the 
home  of  the  man  who,  more  than  any  other,  set  these 
mighty  forces  at  work. 

When  @ne's  mind  has  become  steeped  in  cosmopoli 
tan  ideas  by  a  protracted  stay  in  Europe,  there  is 
nothing  which  will  restore  him  to  wholesome  American 
ism  more  thoroughly  than  a  few  hours  at  Mount  Vernon. 
Nowhere  can  Emerson's  tumultuous  privacy  of  storm 
be  employed  to  better  advantage,  for  on  a  stormy  day 
visitors  are  few  and  you  may  examine  the  relics  at  your 
leisure.  You  will  get  closer  to  George  Washington  and 
to  the  old  life  of  the  place  when  you  are  almost  alone, 
but  you  do  not  know  Mount  Vernon  until  you  have 

10 


seen  it  in  rain  and  in  sunshine,  in  winter  and  in  summer, 
in  the  morning  and  with  the  lengthening  shadows  of 
the  afternoon.  The  mansion  is  kept  in  such  perfect 
condition  that  it  gives  no  indication  of  having  endured 
the  storms  of  so  many  years.  Yet  you  are  surrounded 
by  the  atmosphere  of  the  eighteenth  century,  that  age 
of  silk  stockings,  lace  cuffs,  powdered  hair  and  stately 
manners,  so  that  one  almost  expects  to  see  Lady  Wash 
ington  drive  up  with  her  coach  and  four.  Life  at  Mount 
Vernon,  though  simple,  was  in  the  grand  style;  and 
the  mansion,  too,  is  simple,  but  with  an  air  of  elegance 
to  a  certain  extent  its  own,  for  it  is  not  entirely  derived 
from  its  association  with  its  illustrious  proprietor.  The 
seclusion  of  Mount  Vernon  imparts  distinction.  You 
cannot  take  it  at  unawares;  you  must  approach  it  as 
you  would  some  stately  personage.  The  mansion  is 
unique  in  situation  as  well  as  in  design.  There  is  no 
more  eligible  site  in  the  whole  course  of  the  beautiful 
Potomac,  and  I  have  never  seen  a  building  which  re 
sembled  it.  Exquisite  in  itself  merely  as  a  beautiful 
old  villa,  it  is  superb  in  what  one  can  think  into  it  if 
he  has  the  creative  imagination  to  restore  the  past. 

Though  rich  in  memories,  they  are  all  noble;  there 
is  no  skeleton  in  the  closet  and  no  ghost.  Listen  to 
what  the  old  house  has  to  tell  you,  for  it  is  silently  elo 
quent.  As  you  walk  through  these  rooms  you  are 
turning  the  pages  of  history.  No  other  private  resi 
dence  in  the  world  is  so  permeated  with  the  annals  of 
a  great  nation,  and  its  associations  are  all  the  result  of 
the  life  work  of  one  great  man.  In  the  importance  of 
the  deliberations  and  of  the  anxious  thought  given  here 
to  the  most  vital  interests  of  our  country  and  of  man 
kind,  Mount  Vernon  ranks  with  Carpenters  and  In 
dependence  Halls.  Here  the  ablest  men  came  to  confer 
with  Washington.  In  the  library  he  drafted  historic 

11 


documents  and  wrote  hundreds  of  letters  of  the  utmost 
importance  to  our  country.  It  adds  interest  to  the 
reading  of  a  letter  of  Washington  to  be  able  to  picture 
him  as  he  wrote  it  in  his  library.  When  you  read 
his  letters  you  get  close  to  the  man  himself,  as  if  you 
grasped  that  mighty  hand  and  looked  into  those  brave, 
blue  eyes. 

At  Mount  Vernon  was  good  living,  in  all  the  senses  of 
the  words.  There  were  good  thoughts,  good  compan 
ions,  good  books  and  good  dinners.  Stevenson  might 
have  been  describing  Mount  Vernon  when  he  wrote — 

"Flowers  in  the  garden,  meat  in  the  hall, 
A  bin  of  wine,  a  spice  of  wit, 
A  house  with  lawns  inclosing  it, 
A  living  river  by  the  door." 

Though  the  Great  House  was  remote  from  the  main 
road,  far  within  his  own  domains,  Washington  wrote, 
"Captain  Johnson  comes  past  my  door  in  his  ship."  So 
Washington  lived  in  a  house  by  the  side  of  the  road  to  the 
Old  World,  and  he  was  a  friend  to  man. 

The  tranquil  river,  bending  in  great  curves  and  like 
a  long  mirror  reflecting  the  light  for  miles,  gave  the  same 
dignity  and  grace  to  the  landscape  when  he  gazed  lov 
ingly  upon  it  from  the  shade  of  his  own  vine  and  fig- 
tree,  but  the  glory  of  the  historic  past  now  radiates  from 
the  stream,  as  if  it  was  proud  of  its  association  with 
Washington.  He  was  familiar  with  the  varied  sections 
whence  came  every  drop  that  flows  past  his  home,  for 
in  his  mind  he  could  follow  the  river  beyond  its  Great 
Falls  and  Harpers  Ferry  all  the  way  to  its  source,  and  in 
his  youth  he  made  many  surveys  along  its  beautiful 
tributary,  the  Shenandoah.  The  problems  of  the  utiliza 
tion  of  the  Potomac  occupied  much  of  the  time  and 
thought  of  his  later  years.  On  its  banks  he  was  born  and 
died.  It  flows  past  the  beautiful  city  which  bears  his 
name,  and  circles  his  sky-piercing  monument,  which  over- 

12 


looks  so  many  miles  of  its  course.  The  waves  of  the 
Potomac  kiss  the  shores  of  his  home  and  murmur  their 
perpetual  requiem  about  his  tomb. 

We  must  visit  Mount  Vernon  to  know  the  real 
Washington,  and,  to  know  him  as  we  ought,  we  should 
visit  it  many  times  and  read  and  re-read  his  works,  for 
the  more  we  know  of  Washington  the  more  we  appre 
ciate  his  home.  There  have  been  thousands  of  books 
written  about  Washington,  but  the  best  will  always  be 
those  he  wrote  himself,  and  these  are  the  ones  which  are 
read  the  least.  We  should  hear  less  about  the  hatchet 
and  the  cherry-tree  and  other  myths,  and  we  should  be 
better  Americans  if  we  read  as  much  as  we  can  of  what 
Washington  himself  has  written;  for,  in  so  doing,  we  not 
only  become  acquainted  with  the  first  American,  but  we 
also  learn  how  our  country  was  made  a  nation.  How 
little  the  average  visitor  knows  of  the  life  of  Washington 
is  evidenced  by  the  frequent  request  at  Mount  Vernon 
to  be  shown  the  room  in  which  he  was  born.  Few  re 
member  that  Washington,  as  his  father  had  done  before 
him,  saw  the  light  at  Wakefield,  on  the  Potomac,  fifty  miles 
below  Mount  Vernon.  Nine  out  of  ten  of  the  hundreds 
of  biographers,  including  Sparks  and  Irving,  state  that 
soon  after  the  birth  of  George  his  family  removed  to  an 
estate  opposite  Fredericksburg;  but  the  Vestry  Book  of 
Pohick  Church  states:  November  18,  1735,  Augustine 
Washington,  the  father  of  George,  was  sworn  in  as  ves 
tryman  and  attended  meetings  August  18,  1736,  August 
13,  1737,  and  October  3,  1737,  after  which  his  name  does 
not  appear.  It  is  thus  clear  that  at  this  time  the  family 
resided  at  Hunting  Creek,  as  Mount  Vernon  was  then 
called.  Augustine  Washington  was  marked  absent  from 
vestry  meetings  held  October  11,  1736,  and  April  12, 
1737.  I  am  able  to  explain  his  absence  by  something 
which  has  not  hitherto  been  noted,  which  throws  much 
light  on  this  important  period  about  which  we  have 

13 


known  so  little.  In  the  Boston  Athenaeum  is  a  book 
called  "A  Complete  View  of  the  British  Customs."  It 
contains  a  list  of  the  several  ports  and  creeks  of  Great 
Britain,  the  lawful  keys,  wharfs,  etc.,  and  fees  payable. 
On  the  fly-leaf  is  written  "Augustine  Washington  his 
Book  bought  ye  4th  of  May  1737  of  ye  Booksellers  under 
ye  Royal  Exchange.  Cost  7  Shillings."  If  this  book 
could  talk  it  would  doubtless  tell  us  that  George  Wash 
ington's  father  commanded  and  owned  a  ship  in  which  he 
carried  the  productions  of  Mount  Vernon  to  England, 
and  in  a  previous  voyage  he  probably  brought  back  the 
bricks  for  the  barn,  the  only  existing  building  which 
dates  from  this  period.  Excellent  bricks  were  made  in 
Virginia,  and  a  few  years  later  we  shall  see  that  sixteen 
thousand  of  them  were  baked  for  the  underpinning  of 
Mount  Vernon.  That  the  tobacco  ships  came  back 
ballasted  with  brick  and  stone  shows  that  the  colonists 
were  too  poor  to  import  much  from  the  mother  country. 
The  house  occupied  by  Augustine  Washington  and  his 
family  was  burned  in  1739.  The  fact  that  there  is  a 
well  in  the  cellar  of  the  present  mansion  leads  me  to  be 
lieve  that  the  original  house  occupied  the  same  site,  for 
the  well  must  have  been  intended  for  use  in  case  of  an 
attack  by  Indians.  By  a  deed  recorded  in  October,  1740, 
Augustine  Washington  conveyed  to  his  son  Lawrence 
the  2500  acres  of  land  at  Hunting  Creek,  which  was  later 
called  Mount  Vernon.  In  August,  1740,  Lawrence  Wash 
ington  embarked  to  join  Admiral  Vernon  in  the  West 
Indies.  From  Jamaica,  May  30,  1741,  Lawrence  wrote 
his  father,  "I  hope  my  lotts  are  secured,  which,  if  I  re 
turn,  shall  make  use  of  as  my  dwelling."  He  did  not 
return  until  the  spring  of  1743,  and  on  the  19th  of 
July  was  married  to  Anne  Fairfax.  It  is  difficult 
to  understand  how  Lawrence  could  have  given 
attention  to  the  building  of  the  original  central  part  of 
the  mansion  at  this  time,  and  it  seems  more  reasonable  to 

14 


attribute  its  construction  to  the  loving  care  of  Augustine 
for  his  son,  who  was  to  be  married  as  soon  as  his  military 
service  was  over,  and  to  suppose  that  Augustine  alluded 
to  these  facts  when  he  had  cut  on  the  corner  stone  the 
initials  L.  W.  with  the  heart  and  the  military  axes. 
Augustine  died  April  28,  1743.  His  will  was  executed 
April  llth,  and  was  presented  for  probate  by  Lawrence 
May  6th  following.  It  begins:  "I  Augustine  Washington 
of  the  County  of  King  George — Gentleman  being  sick 
and  weak  but  of  perfect  and  disposing  sence  and  mem 
ory;"  and  the  first  provision  gives  Lawrence  "the  land  at 
Hunting  Creek  with  the  water  mill  adjoining  and  all  the 
Slaves,  Cattle  and  Stocks  and  all  the  Household  Furna- 
ture  whatsoever  now  in  and  upon  or  which  have  been 
commonly  possessed  by  my  said  son."  The  words  "which 
have  been  commonly  possessed  by  my  said  son"  should 
be  carefully  pondered  over,  as  they  seem  to  throw  light 
on  this  important  but  obscure  period  in  the  history  of 
the  mansion. 

When  Lawrence  called  his  estate  Mount  Vernon 
he  not  only  showed  his  affection  for  his  old  chief,  Ad 
miral  Vernon,  but  also  that  loyalty  to  England  which 
caused  the  people  of  Alexandria  to  name  their  streets 
King,  Prince,  Duke,  Royal,  Queen,  Princess,  Duchess. 
The  construction  of  the  Great  House  went  on  at  in 
tervals  during  most  of  George  Washington's  life,  nor 
did  he  consider  it  finished  when  he  died.  Augustine, 
Lawrence  and  George  were  probably  its  only  architects. 
George  was  always  fond  of  drawing  plans  and  would 
have  been  as  good  an  architect  as  he  was  surveyor. 
You  may  restore  the  house  to  its  condition  in  Lawrence's 
time  by,  in  your  imagination,  removing  the  portico, 
the  colonnades,  the  third  story,  the  banquet  hall,  the 
library,  and  replacing  with  a  few  cabins  all  the  out 
buildings  except  the  barn.  The  mansion  will  be  left 
about  one-third  of  its  present  size,  with  two  stories  and  a 

15 


garret  with  gable  roof  and  dormer  windows.  There 
were  four  rooms  on  each  floor,  a  small  porch  at  the  front 
door  and  chimneys  at  each  end.  Lawrence  died  at 
Mount  Vernon,  July  26,  1752,  aged  thirty-four.  That 
what  is  now  called  the  old  tomb  was  constructed 
about  this  time  is  made  clear  by  the  first  provision  in 
his  will — "that  a  proper  vault  for  Interment  be  made 
on  my  home  plantation  wherein  my  remains  together 
with  my  three  children  may  be  decently  placed,  and 
to  serve  for  my  wife  and  such  other  of  the  family  as 
may  desire  it."  The  four  children  of  Lawrence,  all  of 
whom  died  young,  were  doubtless  born  at  Mount  Ver 
non,  and  three  of  them  are  buried  there. 

The  death  of  Lawrence  changed  the  life  of  George, 
for  Lawrence  had  been  a  second  father  to  him,  and 
had  done  much  to  give  him  that  education  which  is 
derived  from  association  with  good  men  and  good  books. 
Lawrence  kept  him  at  Mount  Vernon  when  it  was 
possible,  and  in  his  latter  days  endeared  himself  to 
George  by  his  resignation  and  by  his  patient  endurance 
of  suffering.  "My  loving  brother  George  Washington" 
was  left  one  of  his  executors,  and  at  the  death  of  Law 
rence's  daughter  and  only  surviving  child,  Baby  Sarah, 
which  occurred  in  September  at  the  age  of  one  year, 
George  inherited  Mount  Vernon,  subject  to  a  life  interest 
in  favor  of  the  widow  of  Lawrence.  George  had  to 
pay  her  fifteen  thousand  pounds  of  tobacco  yearly. 
This  was  about  all  the  estate  at  that  time  produced. 
The  annuity  might  be  paid  in  money  at  the  rate  of  12 
shillings  6  pence  per  hundred  weight,  and  would  thus 
amount  to  £  93  1 5s .  The  widow  of  Lawrence  died  in  1 76 1 . 
In  October,  1754,  George  Washington  resigned 
his  military  command  of  the  Virginia  forces  and  retired 
to  Mount  Vernon,  where  he  remained  till  he  set  out 
with  General  Braddock,  who  had  arrived  with  a  strong 
force  from  England.  Two  men-of-war,  the  Nightingale 

16 


and  the  Seahorse,  escorted  his  sixteen  transports.  We 
do  not  know  whether  Washington  mounted  his  horse 
and  rode  down  the  river  to  see  the  British  ships  come 
up,  or  whether  he  had  the  patience  to  wait  till  one 
after  another  they  appeared  round  the  point;  but  we 
may  be  sure  that  the  officers  gathered  in  little  groups 
on  the  decks  to  gaze  on  the  mansion  of  the  Virginia 
colonel  who  the  year  before  had  fired  that  shot  which 
Thackeray  says  wakened  "a  war  which  was  to  last 
for  sixty  years  and  which  was  to  cover  his  own  country 
and  pass  into  Europe,  to  cost  France  her  American 
colonies,  to  sever  ours  from  us,  and  create  the  great 
Western  Republic;  to  rage  over  the  Old  World  when 
extinguished  in  the  New;  and,  of  all  the  myriads  engaged 
in  the  vast  contest,  to  leave  the  prize  of  the  greatest 
fame  with  him  who  struck  the  first  blow!"  April  2, 
1755,  Washington  wrote  Captain  Orme,  one  of  Brad- 
dock's  officers,  at  Alexandria:  "The  arrival  of  a  good 
deal  of  company  (among  whom  is  my  mother,  alarmed 
at  the  report  of  my  intentions  to  attend  your  fortunes) 
prevents  me  the  pleasure  of  waiting  upon  you  today." 
Washington  first  saw  British  regulars  at  Alexandria 
at  this  time,  and,  as  he  accompanied  the  expedition, 
made  observations  of  them  collectively  and  individually, 
which  were  of  great  value  in  our  Revolution. 

Braddock  left  Alexandria  April  20th.  Washington 
wrote  his  mother  from  Camp  at  Will's  Creek,  June  7th: 
"I  hope  you  will  spend  the  chief  part  of  your  time  at  Mount 
Vernon,  as  you  have  proposed  to  do;  where,  I  am 
certain,  everything  will  be  ordered  as  much  for  your 
satisfaction  as  possible,  in  the  situation  we  are  in  there." 
Braddock's  defeat,  July  9th,  near  Fort  Duquesne,  now 
Pittsburg,  by  the  French  and  Indians,  is  one  of  the 
most  disastrous  in  history.  Washington  returned  to 
Mount  Vernon,  July  26th,  where  he  remained  in  a 

17 


weak  and  feeble  condition.  August  14th  he  was  com 
missioned  commander-in-chief  of  the  Virginia  forces, 
and  he  was  for  four  years  busy  on  the  frontier,  return 
ing  to  Mount  Vernon  from  time  to  time.  In  1756, 
Washington  wrote  from  Winchester  asking  for  leave  of 
absence  to  attend  a  meeting  of  executors  of  the  estate 
of  Lawrence  in  September  at  Alexandria,  "as  I  am  very 
deeply  interested,  not  only  as  executor  and  heir  of 
part  of  his  estate,  but  also  in  a  very  important  dispute 
subsisting  between  Colonel  Lee,  who  married  the  widow, 
and  my  brothers  and  self,  concerning  a  devise  in  the 
will,  which  brings  the  whole  personal  estate  in  question." 
In  September,  1757,  Washington  came  to  Mount  Vernon 
to  the  funeral  of  William  Fairfax,  of  Belvoir,  the  father 
of  Anne.  In  November,  Washington  returned  to  Mount 
Vernon  in  bad  health  and  was  attended  by  his  physician, 
Charles  Green,  who  was  also  rector  of  Pohick  Church. 
March  4,  1758,  Washington  writes  from  Mount  Vernon 
that  he  has  been  under  the  care  of  several  physicians, 
and  intends  to  set  out  for  Williamsburg  to  consult  the 
best  doctors  there.  He  returned  to  his  command  about 
the  first  of  April.  When  Washington's  approaching 
marriage  made  it  necessary  to  enlarge  his  mansion, 
John  Patterson  writes  him  June  17,  1758,  that  he  will 
take  the  roof  off  the  house  as  soon  as  the  carpenters 
get  the  laths  to  shingle  on.  July  13th,  Patterson  writes* 
"The  Great  House  was  raisd  six  days  ago;  sixteen 
thousand  bricks  have  been  burnt  for  the  underpinning." 
July  14th,  Colonel  John  Carlyle  writes  Washington  that 
his  house  is  now  uncovered.  August  13th,  Patterson 
reports  that  the  outside  of  the  house  is  finished.  Hum 
phrey  Knight  writes  Washington,  August  24th,  "The 
great  house  goes  on  as  brisk  as  possible.  The  painter 
has  been  painting  3  days.  Our  carpenter  is  now  getting 
laths  to  sheath  ye  great  house."  The  repairs  included 
new  weather  boards,  closets,  floors  and  a  stairway  to 

18 


the  attic.  It  is  not  necessary  to  go  into  the  extensive 
alterations  and  additions  which  were  made  at  various 
times  later,  as  they  have  been  fully  described  by  other 
writers. 

In  December,  1758,  Washington  resigned  his  com 
mission,  and  he  did  not  take  up  the  sword  again  until,  in 
June,  1775,  he  was  chosen  commander-in-chief  of  the 
American  armies.  In  January,  1759,  he  was  married  to 
Mrs.  Martha  Custis  and  stayed  at  his  bride's  estate, 
White  House,  in  New  Kent  on  the  Pamunky,  until  the 
close  of  the  session  of  the  House  of  Burgesses  in  May, 
when  the  couple  came  to  live  at  Mount  Vernon.  Both 
the  White  House  and  Mrs.  Washington's  other  residence, 
the  Six  Chimney  House  in  Williamsburg,  were  finer  man 
sions  than  Mount  Vernon  was  at  that  time,  but  she  cheer 
fully  made  her  home  in  the  remote  and  humble  dwelling 
of  Colonel  Washington.  You  may  see  at  Mount  Vernon 
a  pincushion  made  of  her  wedding  gown — white  brocaded 
satin,  threaded  with  silver.  Washington  wrote,  20 
September,  1759,  from  Mount  Vernon:  "I  am  now,  I 
believe,  fixed  at  this  seat  with  an  agreeable  Consort  for 
Life,  and  hope  to  find  more  happiness  in  retirement  than 
I  ever  experienced  amidst  a  wide  and  bustling  world." 
This  is  the  earliest  expression  of  a  thought  which  runs 
through  his  writings  during  the  rest  of  his  life,  his  enjoy 
ment  in  the  peaceful  retirement  of  Mount  Vernon;  but,  in 
view  of  his  strenuous  experiences  when  General  and 
President,  Washington  must  have  smiled  if  he  recalled 
how  little  he  knew  at  twenty-seven  about  the  "wide  and 
bustling  world." 

For  sixteen  years  before  the  Revolution  Washington 
led  the  kind  of  life  he  always  wished.  His  earliest  daily 
record  at  Mount  Vernon  begins  January  1,  1760,  and 
states  that  on  his  return  from  visiting  his  plantations  he 
found  Mrs.  Washington  broke  out  with  the  measles. 
"January  2d  Mrs.  Barnes  who  came  to  visit  Mrs.  Wash- 

19 


ington  yesterday  returned  home  in  my  chariot,  the 
weather  being  too  bad  to  travel  in  an  open  carriage — 
which,  together  with  Mrs.  Washington's  indisposition 
confined  me  to  the  House  and  gave  me  an  opportunity 
of  posting  my  books  and  putting  them  in  good  order. 
January  3d  the  weather  continuing  bad  and  ye  same 
causes  subsisting  I  confined  myself  to  the  house  .  .  . 

several  of  the  Family  were  taken  with  the 

measles  .  .  .  Hauled  the  sein  and  got  some  fish,  but 
was  near  being  disappointed  of  my  boat  by  means  of  an 
oyster  man  who  had  lain  at  my  landing  and  plagued  me  a 
good  deal  by  his  disorderly  behavior."  I  wish  I  could 
give  the  whole  diary.  Read  it  if  you  would  have  an 
idea  of  life  at  old  Mount  Vernon. 

All  his  life  Washington  was  an  outdoor  man.  He 
was  conceded  to  be  the  best  horseman  in  Virginia.  Be 
fore  the  Revolution  he  rode  a  hunting  two  or  three  times 
a  week  with  neighbors  and  guests,  and  the  mellow  baying 
of  the  long-eared  hounds,  the  distant  horn  and  the  view 
halloo,  resounded  from  field  and  wood  as  the  hunt  swept 
on.  When  after  foxes,  sometimes  the  hounds  would 
start  a  deer.  Bears  were  seen  near  Mount  Vernon  as 
late  as  1772.  In  November,  1785,  Thomas  Hunter  saw 
thousands  of  ducks  within  gun  shot  and  also  wild  geese 
and  turkeys.  The  wild  turkeys  sometimes  weighed 
thirty  or  forty  pounds.  Before  the  Revolution  we  find 
Washington  ordering  for  himself  "a  pair  of  crimson 
velvet  breeches,  a  pair  of  double  campaigners  (boots), 
a  gentleman's  hunting  cap  covered  with  black  velvet  to 
fit  a  pretty  large  head,  cushioned  round  or  stuffed  to 
make  it  sit  easy  thereon,  a  silk  band  and  handsome  sil 
ver  buckle  to  it,  one  best  whole  hunting  whip,  pretty 
stout  and  strong,  caped  with  silver  and  my  name  en 
graved  thereon.  A  riding  frock  of  a  handsome  drab 
coloured  broad  cloth  with  plain  double  gilt  buttons,  a 
riding  waistcoat  of  superior  scarlet  cloth  and  gold  lace 

20 


with  buttons  like  those  of  the  coat.  A  large  and  loud 
hunting  horn,  laped  and  secured  in  the  strongest  man 
ner."  Washington  went  to  many  horse  races,  and  tells 
us  that  on  one  occasion  he  went  to  a  boat  race  on  the 
Potomac.  He  records  that  he  made  a  fishing  trip  on  his 
schooner  that  lasted  for  several  days.  At  night  he  slept 
on  the  boat  or  at  the  house  of  friends  on  the  shore.  Wash 
ington  and  his  neighbors  on  the  Potomac  had  barges 
manned  by  negroes  in  uniform.  Among  his  orders  from 
England  were  "a  whale  boat,  long  narrow  sharp  at  both 
ends,  and  one  dozen  neat  and  light  18  feet  oars  for  a 
light  whale  boat,  the  blades  scooped  and  painted."  Mr. 
Digges  was  a  wealthy  planter,  whose  estate,  Warburton, 
could  be  seen  across  the  Potomac  in  Maryland.  At  a 
signal  his  barge  and  that  of  Washington  would  meet  in 
the  middle  of  the  river  and  transfer  passengers.  Wash 
ington  had  also  a  ferry  boat  in  which  carriages  and  horses 
were  "put  over"  the  Potomac.  In  1785  Mrs.  Macaulay 
Graham,  an  English  authoress,  came  to  America  with 
her  husband  for  the  sole  purpose  of  seeing  Washington. 
Her  history  of  England  in  eight  volumes  is  forgotten,  but 
the  ten  days  they  spent  at  Mount  Vernon  Washington 
has  commemorated  in  his  diary.  He  says:  "At  seven 
o'clock  on  the  morning  of  June  14th  I  accompanied  them 
to  Mr.  Digges's  to  which  place  I  had  her  carriage  and 
horses  put  over."  When  Captain  John  Smith  came  up 
the  Potomac  in  1608  it  was  so  full  of  fish  that  he  states 
that  he  killed  them  with  his  sword.  In  Washington's 
time  hundreds  of  shad  and  thousands  of  herring  were 
taken  at  Mount  Vernon  by  means  of  seines  drawn  in  by 
a  windlass  turned  by  horses. 

Washington  described  Mount  Vernon  as  follows: 
"No  estate  in  the  United  States  is  more  pleasantly 
situated.  In  a  high  and  healthy  country,  in  a  latitude 
between  the  extremes  of  heat  and  cold,  on  one  of  the 
finest  rivers  in  the  world,  a  river  well  stocked  with 

21 


various  kinds  of  fish  at  all  seasons  of  the  year, 
and  in  the  spring  with  shad,  herring,  bass,  carp, 
sturgeon,  etc.,  in  great  abundance.  The  borders 
of  the  estate  are  washed  by  more  than  ten  miles 
of  tidewater;  several  valuable  fisheries  appertain  to  it. 
The  whole  shore,  in  fact,  is  one  vast  fishery."  The 
estate  was  divided  into  Mansion  House  Farm,  River 
Farm,  Union  Farm,  Muddy  Hole  Farm,  Dogue  Run 
Farm.  The  trolley  line  crosses  the  River  Farm  before 
reaching  Hunting  Creek.  There  are  some  thirty  build 
ings  at  Mount  Vernon,  among  which  are  the  kitchen, 
connected  with  the  mansion  by  an  arcade,  servants' 
quarters,  butler's  house,  gardener's  house,  store  house, 
smoke  house,  wash  house,  stable,  coach  house,  barns, 
salt  house,  carpenter  shop,  spinning  house,  where  sixteen 
wheels  were  kept  going,  green  house,  spring  house,  milk 
house,  and  an  ice  house  which  in  mild  winters  was  filled 
with  snow.  It  was  built  when  ice  houses  were  curiosities, 
for  nearly  every  one  hung  butter  and  milk  down  the  well 
or  kept  them  in  a  spring  house. 

In  his  will  Washington  describes  himself  as  "George 
Washington  of  Mount  Vernon,  a  citizen  of  the  United 
States."  I  will  not  comment  on  this  important  state 
ment  further  than  to  suggest  that  it  offers  food  for 
thought  by  what  it  omits,  no  less  than  by  what  it  includes. 
Washington  was  never  really  happy  away  from  Mount 
Vernon.  After  the  Revolution  he  wrote:  "Agriculture 
has  ever  been  the  most  favorite  amusement  of  my  life." 
In  1785  a  visitor  to  Mount  Vernon  stated  that  Washing 
ton's  greatest  pride  was  to  be  thought  the  first  farmer  in 
America.  That  combination  of  accurate  knowledge  of 
human  nature  and  untiring  industry  which  made  him  a 
great  commander  made  him  also  a  great  farmer.  He  was 
master  of  the  art  of  turning  his  circumstances  to  the  best 
account.  At  Mount  Vernon  there  was  no  want,  because 
there  was  no  waste  when  the  master  was  there.  Though 

22 


he  was  a  liberal  contributor  to  churches,  schools  and  pri 
vate  charities,  Washington  was  economical  both  of  time 
and  money.  He  kept  in  books,  in  his  own  writing,  lists  of 
all  articles  ordered  and  copies  of  the  receipts  for  them. 
He  kept  daybooks,  ledgers  and  letter  books  and  drew  up 
contracts,  leases  and  deeds  with  minute  legal  knowledge. 
Before  the  Revolution  he  employed  no  secretary,  and  the 
mass  of  his  correspondence  and  other  writing  added  con 
siderably  to  his  many  tasks.  He  was  always  accurately 
informed  with  regard  to  the  production  of  each  field,  the 
market  value  of  his  crops,  the  physical  condition  of  work 
ers  and  of  live  stock  and  the  daily  amount  of  work  done 
by  each.  In  farming  and  in  landscape  gardening  the 
element  of  time  is  an  important  factor.  Washington 
planned  his  work  ahead  for  as  much  as  three  years.  He 
was  an  expert  judge  of  the  quality  of  land.  He  rested 
old  fields,  sowed  clover,  timothy  and  other  grasses  for 
hay  and  for  enriching  the  soil,  and  rotated  his  crops  in  the 
most  scientific  manner  of  his  time.  He  made  roads,  cleared 
and  fenced  fields,  stopped  washouts  and  drained  bogs 
and  dug  ditches.  He  wrote  his  overseer:  "Whenever  you 
have  leisure  to  do  it,  it  would  be  serviceable  by  way  of 
stopping  the  progress  of  that  gully  at  the  mouth  of  the 
lane,  at  Mansion  house — and  indeed  all  others — to  drive 
stakes  across  and  retain  the  trash  that  is  swept  down  with 
the  torrent.  They  also  serve  to  break  the  force  of  the 
water;  and  by  degrees,  with  other  assistance,  fill  them  up. 
The  gullies  I  mean,  without  these  obstructions,  the  de 
scending  water  from  very  heavy  rains  sweep  all  before 
it."  "To  introduce  system,  and  a  regular  course  of 
crops;  to  introduce  grass  where,  and  when  proper;  to 
make  meadows  and  hedges,  to  recover  my  fields  from 
the  exhausted,  and  gullied  state  in  which  many  of  them 
are;  to  improve  my  stock,  and  to  get  into  a  way  of  es 
tablishing  large  dairies,  and  turning  that  stock  to  profit 
able  uses  and  to  make  much  hay  which  will  always  be  in 

23 


demand,  and  command  a  good  price;  are  much  more 
desirable  objects  with  me  than  to  push  the  best  of  my 
fields,  out  of  their  regular  course  with  a  view  to  increase 
the  next  or  any  other  year's  crops  of  grain.  I  know  full 
well  that  by  picking  and  culling  the  fields  I  should  be  able 
for  a  year  or  two  to  make  larger  crops  of  grain;  but  I 
know  also  that  by  so  doing  I  shall  in  a  few  years  make 
nothing  and  find  my  land  ruined."  "Immediate  profit 
is  not  so  much  an  object  with  me  as  the  restoration  of 
worn  out  and  gullied  fields;  bringing  them  in  condition  to 
bear  grass,  reclaiming  and  laying  swamps  to  meadow, 
making  live  fences  and  ornamenting  the  grounds  about 
the  Mansion  House."  "I  shall  begrudge  no  reasonable  ex 
pense  that  will  contribute  to  the  improvement  and  neat 
ness  of  my  farms;  for  nothing  pleases  me  better  than  to 
see  them  in  good  order,  and  everything  trim,  handsome 
and  thriving  about  them." 

During  the  most  trying  times  of  the  war  he 
wrote  Lund  Washington,  who  was  his  overseer  and 
whose  home  was  at  Hayfield  four  miles  northwest 
of  Mount  Vernon,  a  long  weekly  letter.  These  letters 
have  never  been  published,  but  the  letters  written 
to  his  overseers  when  he  was  President  add  greatly  to 
our  knowledge  of  the  character  of  Washington  and  of  his 
methods  of  doing  business.  "You  must  be  governed  by 
circumstances  and  your  own  view  of  the  case;  with  this 
caution,  not  to  undertake  in  this,  or  in  anything  else, 
more  than  you  can  accomplish  well,  recollecting  always, 
that  a  thing  but  half  done  is  never  done;  and  well  done, 
is,  in  a  manner  done  for  ever."  "To  correct  the  abuses 
which  have  crept  into  all  parts  of  my  business — to  ar 
range  it  properly,  and  to  reduce  things  to  system;  will 
require,  I  am  sensible,  a  good  deal  of  time  and  your  ut 
most  exertions;  of  the  last  from  the  character  you  bear, 
I  entertain  no  doubt;  the  other,  I  am  willing  to  allow, 
because  I  had  rather  you  should  probe  things  to  the  bot- 

24 


torn,  whatever  time  it  may  require  to  do  it,  than  to  de 
cide  hastily  upon  the  first  view  of  them,  as  to  establish 
good  rules,  and  a  regular  system,  is  the  life  and  the  soul 
of  every  kind  of  business."  Washington  writes  his  over 
seer  that  nothing  is  more  interesting  to  him  than  hedging. 
On  the  way  back  to  Philadelphia  from  Mount  Vernon  in 
October,  1795,  he  says  he  observed  all  the  hedges  about 
Christiana,  and  from  there  to  Wilmington.  "I  agree  to 
your  taking  up  the  young  Cedars  along  the  Creek  side, 
and  transplanting  them  in  the  lane  as  you  propose;  and 
am  glad  to  find  you  managed  the  Cedar  berries  in  the 
manner  you  have  mentioned;  they  certainly  will  make  a 
good  hedge ;  and  are  a  tree  of  quick  growth. "  "No  hedge, 
alone,  will,  I  am  persuaded,  do  for  an  outer  inclosure, 
where  two  or  four  footed  hogs  find  it  convenient  to  open  a 
passage."  "There  is  nothing  which  has  relation  to  my 
farms,  not  even  the  crops  of  grain,  that  I  am  so  solici 
tous  about  as  getting  my  fields  enclosed  with  live  fences." 
In  1789,  Tobias  Lear  wrote  that  there  were  employed 
at  Mount  Vernon  more  than  two  hundred  and  fifty 
hands.  The  farms  were  not  under  the  direction  of  over 
seers  at  that  time,  but  were  superintended  by  the  General 
himself,  who  never  failed  visiting  each  of  them  every  day 
unless  the  weather  was  absolutely  stormy.  Twenty- 
four  plows  were  kept  going  at  all  times  in  the  year  when 
it  was  profitable  for  a  plow  to  stir;  "we  have  this  spring 
already  (March  30)  put  into  the  ground  600  bushels  of 
oats,  we  have  in  wheat  upwards  of  700  acres,  as  much 
more  prepared  for  corn,  barley,  potatoes,  peas,  beans, 
etc.,  near  500  acres  in  grass  and  shall  sow  this  summer  150 
acres  of  turnips.  We  have  140  horses,  112  cows,  235 
working  oxen,  steers  and  heifers  and  500  sheep — this  is 
farming  to  some  purpose — we  carry  on  all  the  trades 
which  are  necessary  for  the  support  of  those  farms  within 
ourselves — the  seat  and  its  offices  resemble  a  little  village, 
we  have  carpenters,  joiners,  bricklayers,  blacksmiths,  a 

25 


taylor  and  a  shoemaker  all  of  whom  are  as  constantly 
employed  in  their  several  occupations  as  they  are  in  the 
largest  cities — but  notwithstanding  all  this  appearance 
of  income,  we  are  obliged  to  live  at  so  great  an  expense 
that  it  brings  in  no  profit — almost  the  whole  of  the  pro 
duce  is  consumed  within  ourselves — the  negroes  are  not 
treated  as  blacks  in  general,  they  are  clothed  and  fed  as 
well  as  any  laboring  people  whatever  and  they  are  not 
subject  to  the  lash  of  a  domineering  overseer." 

The  trades  carried  on  included  carpentering,  black- 
smithing,  wagon-making,  coopering,  shipbuilding,  brick- 
making,  masonry,  tanning,  shoemaking,  harness- 
making,  milling,  distilling,  tailoring,  spinning,  weaving 
and  knitting.  Washington  had  his  own  quarry  and 
made  lime  by  burning  oyster  shells  brought  in  boats 
from  Alexandria.  Timber  for  joists,  rafters  and  boards 
was  hewn  by  hand,  and  the  carpenters,  when  they  had 
time  in  bad  weather,  made  houses  which  were  taken 
in  parts  to  Alexandria  and  put  up  there.  Washington 
records  that  two  hundred  days  were  spent  in  building 
a  schooner,  and  smaller  boats  were  also  built.  Before 
the  Revolution  tools,  paints  and  many  other  requisites 
for  the  constant  improvements  and  repairs  were  ordered 
from  England.  Charcoal  was  made  for  the  blacksmith 
shop,  and  Peter,  the  colored  blacksmith,  helped  in  the 
construction  of  plows.  Harrows,  rakes,  wheels  for 
carts  and  spinning-wheels  and  other  utensils  were  also 
made.  Washington  went  to  great  pains  to  procure  or 
to  make  from  the  best  patterns,  not  infrequently  in 
accordance  with  his  own  original  ideas,  the  best  ma 
chinery  and  tools.  One  of  the  first  pumps  in  America 
was  placed  at  Mount  Vernon  when  the  old  oaken  bucket, 
raised  by  a  rope  and  windlass  or  by  a  long-balanced 
pole,  was  in  general  use  elsewhere.  In  his  diaries, 
Washington  tells  us  of  riding  to  his  mill,  helping  in  the 
construction  of  a  plow,  hauling  the  seine,  posting  his 

26 


books  on  rainy  days  and  carefully  preparing  the  orders 
from  England.  When  he  was  at  home  he  personally 
supervised  all  work  and  often  assisted  with  his  own 
hands.  Washington  rose  early  and  did  what  would 
be  a  day's  work  for  most  people  before  breakfast.  The 
full  round  of  his  plantations  was  about  ten  miles,  and 
in  summer  he  often  rode  it  before  breakfast,  while  in 
winter  he  would  rise  at  four,  light  his  fire  and  write  by 
candlelight;  only  by  this  means  was  he  able  to  keep 
his  accounts  posted  and  to  attend  to  his  letters.  When 
the  General  arrived  late  for  breakfast  after  a  ride  around 
his  farms,  Mrs.  Washington  would  join  him  and  cheer 
him  at  the  table.  He  breakfasted  at  seven  in  summer 
and  eight  in  winter  on  fish,  bacon,  ham,  eggs,  corncakes, 
butter,  honey,  coffee  or  tea.  Dinner  was  at  three,  later 
there  was  tea,  and  at  nine  the  General  retired.  A  visitor 
states:  "The  dinner  was  very  good,  a  small  roasted  pig, 
boiled  leg  of  lamb,  roasted  fowles,  beef,  peas,  lettuce, 
cucumbers,  artichokes,  puddings,  tarts,  etc."  In  1768, 
Washington  wrote  in  his  diary:  "Would  any  one  believe 
that  with  a  hundred  and  one  cows,  actually  reported  at 
a  late  enumeration  of  the  cattle,  I  should  still  be  obliged 
to  buy  butter  for  my  family?"  He  devoted  much  atten 
tion  to  improving  the  breeds  of  sheep,  hogs,  cattle, 
dogs,  horses  and  especially  of  mules  Fur  breeding 
mules  the  King  of  Spain  sent  a  jackass  called  Royal 
Gift,  and  Lafayette  obtained  another  from  Malta. 
Lafayette  also  sent  hounds,  Chinese  pheasants  and 
French  partridges.  June  25,  1786,  Washington  wrote: 
"Mr.  Ogle  of  Maryland  has  been  so  obliging  as  to  present 
to  me  six  fawns  from  his  park  of  English  deer  at  Bellair. 
Of  the  forest  deer  of  this  country  I  have  also  procured 
six,  two  bucks  and  four  does.  With  these,  and  tolerable 
care,  I  should  soon  have  a  full  stock  for  my  small  pad 
dock."  In  December,  1794,  Washington  wrote  his 
overseer:  "The  gardener  complains  of  the  injury  which 

27 


the  shrubs  (even  in  the  yard)  sustain  from  the  deer. 
I  am  at  a  loss  therefore  in  determining  whether  to  give 
up  the  shrubs  or  the  deer.  Is  there  no  way  of  frighten 
ing  them  from  these  haunts?" 

In  1788,  Gouverneur  Morris  offered  a  couple  of  Chi 
nese  pigs,  "and  in  company  with  the  pigs  shall  be  sent  a 
pair  of  Chinese  geese,  which  are  really  the  foolishest 
geese  I  ever  beheld;  for  they  choose  all  times  for  setting 
but  in  the  spring,  and  one  of  them  is  now  (November) 
actually  engaged  in  that  business."  Washington  ac 
cepted  these  "exotic  animals"  with  thanks. 

Washington  made  Mount  Vernon  the  first  station 
of  experimental  agriculture  in  America,  for  there,  aided 
by  information  which  he  received  from  frequent  corre 
spondence  with  learned  agriculturalists  in  Europe,  he 
conducted  numerous  elaborate  experiments  on  the  nature 
of  soils,  fertilizers,  seeds  and  the  breeding  of  stock. 

My  friend,  Mr.  John  C.  Fitzpatrick,  of  the  Manu 
script  Division  of  the  Library  of  Congress,  calls  my 
attention  to  the  fact  that,  in  the  minuteness  and  com 
pleteness  of  his  records  of  the  weather  at  Mount  Vernon, 
Washington  anticipated  by  many  years  the  United 
States  Weather  Bureau.  He  noted  in  his  diaries  the 
state  of  the  moon,  the  clouds,  the  direction  of  the 
wind,  and  tho  amount  of  rain,  snow,  frost  and  drought. 
January  8,  1785,  is  the  first  record  of  the  temperature, 
and  probably  before  that  date  he  did  not  have  a  ther 
mometer.  From  then  on  he  recorded  the  temperature 
morning,  noon  and  night,  and  when  he  was  away,  Mrs. 
Washington  entered  it  for  him.  The  highest  record 
is  88°,  and  when  the  mercury  went  below  10°  it  retired 
into  the  ball,  after  which  the  cold  could  only  be  guessed 
at.  Washington's  thermometer  is  one  of  the  interesting 
Mount  Vernon  relics. 

It  is  extraordinary  how  much  Washington,  who 
was  the  busiest  man  in  America,  did  for  his  estate  in 

28 


a  lifetime,  during  large  portions  of  which  he  was  absent 
in  the  service  of  his  country.  With  the  art  of  a  skill 
ful  landscape  gardener,  he  improved  the  natural  beau 
ties  of  the  place.  He  writes  General  Knox  that,  in  the 
course  of  the  conversation  at  Boston,  he  "was  most  in 
terested  by  something  which  was  said  respecting  the 
composition  for  a  public  walk,"  and  it  has  been  sug 
gested  that  perhaps  the  Lovers'  Walk  of  Boston  Com 
mon  was  anticipated  at  Mount  Vernon.  On  each  side 
of  the  east  lawn  a  grove  of  locusts  extended  to  the 
river.  Trees  and  shrubs  were  carefully  trimmed  to 
make  a  frame  to  the  view  of  the  Potomac,  and  care  was 
taken  to  keep  vistas  open  in  every  direction.  The  level 
lawn  on  the  west  front,  with  the  wide  serpentine  walk 
shaded  by  weeping  willows,  the  oval  grass  plot,  the  flower 
garden  on  one  side  and  the  kitchen  garden  on  the  other, 
are  all  laid  out  according  to  a  plan  drawn  by  Wash 
ington  himself  and  still  unchanged.  He  paid  great 
attention  to  his  lawns,  and  the  first  order  sent  to 
England  after  his  marriage  includes  "a  large  assortment 
of  grass  seed."  Carefully  trimmed  box  borders  outline 
the  paths  today  exactly  as  in  Washington's  time,  their 
dark  green  making  the  flower  beds  flame  like  stained- 
glass  windows.  Roses  named  by  Washington  for  his 
mother  and  for  Nelly  Custis  still  bloom,  together  with 
yellow,  damask,  tea,  and  guilder  roses.  Old-fash 
ioned  flowers  and  plants  are  cherished — iris,  sweet- 
williams,  spice  pinks,  ivy,  honeysuckle,  lilacs  and  jas 
mine.  Mrs.  Washington's  active  interest  in  the  garden 
is  indicated  by  this  extract  from  a  letter  of  her  husband : 
"I  have  too,  Mrs.  Washington's  particular  thanks  to 
offer  you  for  the  flower  roots  and  seeds." 

No  other  living  things  bring  us  so  close  to  Washington 
as  some  of  the  trees  of  Mount  Vernon,  for  they  were 
planted  by  him,  and  on  them  his  eyes  have  rested  with 
long  and  loving  gaze.  Like  Cicero's  diligent  farmer,  he 

29 


cared  for  them,  knowing  that  he  himself  would  never  reap 
the  benefit.  To  see  his  trees  and  plants  rising  from  the 
earth  and  flourishing  filled  Washington's  mind  with 
thoughts  which  he  said  it  was  easier  to  imagine  than 
to  express.  The  degree  of  civilization  of  a  nation,  as 
well  as  of  an  individual,  is  shown  by  the  care  and  culture 
of  its  trees,  and  those  who  have  neglected  and  destroyed 
them  have  been  punished  by  penalites  which,  though 
slow,  have  been  sure.  Washington  studied  as  well  as  he 
could  the  economic  value  of  forests  and  the  ornamental 
properties  of  trees,  but  the  technical  aspects  of  forestry, 
such  as  reforestration,  the  relation  of  forests  to  mois 
ture  and  rain  fall,  water  supply,  climate  and  public 
health  were  not  so  well  understood  in  his  time  as  they 
are  now.  The  following  books  on  trees  were  in  Wash 
ington's  library:  "The  Orchardist:  or  a  System  of  close 
Pruning  and  Medication,"  by  Thomas  Bucknall;  a 
pamphlet  by  John  Robinson,  Surveyor-General  of 
Woods  and  Forests,  London,  1794,  "On  the  state  of 
waste  lands  and  common  fields  of  Great  Britain" ;  "The 
American  Grove,"  Humphry  Marshall,  Philadelphia, 
1785;  an  alphabetical  catalogue  of  trees  and  shrubs  of  the 
United  States,  with  description  of  their  appearance, 
manner  of  growth  and  hints  of  their  uses  in  medicine, 
dyes  and  domestic  economy.  Professor  Sargent  informs 
me  that  this  is  the  first  book  on  botany  written  by  an 
American.  In  1917,  Professor  Sargent  thought  that 
there  were  fifty-seven  trees  which  had  been  planted  by 
Washington.  In  his  book,  the  study  of  which  adds 
interest  to  the  visit  to  Mount  Vernon,  Professor  Sargent 
says:  "Three  yellow  poplars  were  undoubtedly  planted 
under  Washington's  personal  direction. "  Seven  buckeye- 
trees  grown  from  seeds,  gathered  by  him  in  what  is 
now  West  Virginia,  have  red,  pink,  and  flesh-colored 
flowers  on  different  individuals.  Trees  with  flowers  of 
these  colors  exist  at  Mount  Vernon  alone.  The  mag- 

30 


nolia  planted  by  Washington  is  the  most  famous  tree 
at  Mount  Vernon.  Three  hemlocks  planted  by  him 
still  remain.  Three  box  trees  probably  planted  by  him 
are  among  the  handsomest  and  most  interesting  trees. 
Washington  wished  to  have  perfect  specimens  of 
every  tree  that  would  grow  at  Mount  Vernon.  He  per 
sonally  superintended  the  selection  of  the  most  beautiful 
from  the  neighboring  woods,  and  watched  them  with  care 
until  it  was  clear  that  the  transplanting  was  successful. 
He  arranged  them  symmetrically,  and  mingled  forest 
trees,  flowering  shrubs  and  evergreens  so  as  to  produce 
the  most  agreeable  effect.  Washington  writes,  January 
27, 1785:  "Went  to  Belvoir  and  viewed  the  ruined  build 
ings  of  that  place.  In  doing  this  I  passed  along  the  side 
of  Dogue  Creek  and  the  river  to  the  White  House  in 
search  of  elm  and  other  trees  for  my  shrubberies  and 
found  none  of  the  former  but  discovered  one  fringe 
tree  and  a  few  crab  trees  in  the  first  field  beyond  my 
line — and  in  returning  home,  which  I  did  to  dinner,  I 
found  several  young  holly  trees."  The  next  day  he 
says:  "Rode  today  to  my  plantations  in  the  Neck- 
partly  with  a  view  to  search  for  trees  for  whidh  purpose 
I  passed  through  the  woods  and  in  the  first  drain  beyond 
the  bars  in  my  lower  pasture,  I  discovered  in  tracing  it 
upwards,  many  small  and  thriving  plants  of  the  mag 
nolia  and  about  and  within  the  fence  not  far  distant, 
some  young  maple  trees  and  the  red  berry  ol  the  swamp. 
I  also  along  the  Branch  within  Col.  Mason's  field  came 
across  a  mere  nursery  of  young  crab  trees  of  all  sizes 
and  handsome  and  thriving,  and  along  the  same  branch 
on  the  outer  side  of  the  fence  I  discovered  several  young 
holly  trees.  But  whether  from  the  real  scarcity  or 
difficulty  of  distinguishing  I  could  find  none  of  the  fringe 
tree."  Exotic  plants  were  cultivated  with  care  by 
Washington.  Amariah  Frost  wrote,  1797:  "We  viewed 
the  gardens  and  walks,  which  are  very  elegant,  abound- 

31 


ing    with    many    curiosities,    fig-trees,    raisins,    limes, 
oranges,  large  English  mulberries,  artichokes,  etc." 

In  what  he  called  his  Botanical  Garden  between  the 
flower-garden  and  the  spinner's  house,  Washington  car 
ried  on  much  of  his  investigation.  The  nurseries, 
gardens  and  greenhouse  were  filled  with  choice  collec 
tions  of  rare  plants,  fruit  trees,  vegetables  and  flowers. 
To  do  this  was  not  easy  at  a  time  when  means  of  com 
munication  and  transportation  were  almost  primitive, 
but  admirers  in  all  parts  of  the  world  knew  that  the  best 
way  to  please  the  most  distinguished  man  in  the  world 
was  to  send  him  a  choice  plant  or  animal  for  his  estate. 
Washington's  favorite  Bible  quotation  about  the  shade 
of  his  own  vine  and  fig-tree  was  not  entirely  a  figure 
of  speech,  for  fig-trees  were  trained  on  the  warm  side 
of  the  north  garden  wall,  and  he  paid  much  attention  to 
the  cultivation  of  grapes.  They  are  frequently  men 
tioned.  We  read,  for  instance,  that  the  French  minister, 
Luzerne,  sent  vines,  different  kinds  "of  the  most  valu 
able  eating  grapes  in  France."  It  is  not  in  accordance 
with  his  character  that  the  story  by  which  Washington 
is  most  widely  known  represents  him  as  wantonly  de 
stroying  a  cherry-tree.  In  later  years  he  wrote:  "It 
is  always  in  one's  power  to  cut  a  tree  down,  but  time 
only  can  place  them  where  one  would  have  them." 
All  Washington's  life  he  was  acting  in  accordance  with 
the  sentiment  which  later  was  expressed  by  Sir  Walter 
Scott,  who  did  for  Abbotsford  what  Washington  did  for 
Mount  Vernon — "When  ye  hae  nai thing  else  to  do, 
ye  may  be  aye  sticking  in  a  tree;  it  will  be  growing, 
when  ye're  sleeping."  The  passages  in  Washington's 
letters  and  diaries,  in  which  he  speaks  of  his  trees,  would 
make  a  book  of  considerable  size.  For  years  his  diaries 
show  that  in  February  and  March  he  was  employed  in 
setting  out  and  grafting  fruit  trees;  for  instance,  March 
21,  1763,  "Grafted  40  cherrys,  viz.,  12  Bullock  Hearts 

32 


(a  large  black  May  Cherry),  18  very  fine  May  Cherry, 
10  Coronation.  Also  grafted  12  Magnum  Bonum  Plums. 
Also  planted  4  Nuts  of  the  Mediterranean  Pine. 
Note:  the  cherrys  and  plums  came  from  Col.  Mason's, 
the  nuts  from  Mr.  Green's."  He  mentions  grafting  or 
planting  Spanish  Pears,  Butter  Pears,  Black  Pear 
of  Worcester,  Bergamy  Pears,  New  Town  Pippins  from 
Col.  Mason,  who  had  them  from  Mr.  President  Blair, 
and  grapes  from  Mr.  Digges.  Washington  set  out 
lilac,  sassafras,  dogwood,  aspen,  mulberry,  maple,  black 
gum,  poplar,  locust,  yellow  willow,  pines,  juniper,  ever 
greens,  spruce,  peach-trees,  hemlocks,  weeping  willow 
and  magnolia.  He  was  extremely  fond  of  nuts  and 
planted  many  nut  trees.  Three  pecans  planted  by 
him  before  the  Revolution  were  given  him  by  Jefferson 
and  have  not  yet  attained  middle  age.  The  diary  states 
September  15,  1763:  "Planted  in  11  holes  on  the  west 
side  of  the  Garden  22  English  walnuts,"  and  he  also 
speaks  of  planting  shellbarks,  filberts  and  twenty-five 
Mississippi  nuts,  somewhat  like  the  pignut,  but  larger, 
thinner  shelled  and  fuller  of  meat.  Washington  wrote 
from  Philadelphia  to  his  overseer,  22d  Feb.,  1794:  "I 
have  shipped  three  bushels  of  Clover  seed;  two  bushels 
of  honey  locust  seed;  and  a  keg  of  scaley  bark  hiccory 
nuts; — the  two  last  are  in  one  Cask:  .  .  .  Tell  the 
Gardener  he  must  plant  the  hiccory  nuts  in  drills; — as 
the  Illinois  nuts  herewith  sent,  must  also  be: — and  they 
may  be  put  near  together  in  the  drills,  as  they  will  be 
transplanted  when  they  get  to  a  proper  size."  The 
Illinois  nuts  were  pecans.  The  diary  shows  that  all  the 
spring  of  1785  Washington  was  busy  grafting  and  plant 
ing  trees.  January  19th,  "Employed  till  dinner  in  laying 
out  my  Serpentine  Road  and  Shrubberies  adjoining. 
February  22nd — Removed  two  pretty  large  and  full 
grown  lilacs  to  the  No.  Garden  gate — one  on  each  side 
taking  up  as  much  dirt  with  the  roots  as  could  be  well 

33 


obtained — I  also  removed  from  the  woods  and  old  fields, 
several  young  trees  of  the  Sassafras,  Dogwood  and  Red- 
bud,  to  the  Shrubbery  on  the  No.  side  the  grass  plot. 
February  28th — Planted  all  the  Mulberry  trees,  Maple 
trees  and  Black  gums  in  my  Serpentine  walks — and  the 
Poplars  on  the  right  walk."  March  23,  1786,  he  says 
he  planted  between  17,000  and  18,000  seeds  of  the 
honey  locust.  In  1794,  5000  plants  of  the  white  thorn 
were  sent  to  him  by  Mr.  Lear  from  London.  Washing 
ton  was  indebted  to  trees  for  his  mansion.  The  frame 
work  is  of  oak,  the  sheathing  North  Carolina  pine  and 
the  shingles  cypress.  The  last  time  he  left  the  house, 
which  was  the  afternoon  of  the  day  before  he  died,  he 
walked  out  through  the  snow  to  mark  some  trees  to 
be  cut  down  between  the  mansion  and  the  river.  His 
last  letter  was  to  his  manager  about  the  care  of  Mount 
Vernon.  At  his  death  he  left  written  plans  for  the 
rotation  of  crops  up  to  the  end  of  1803. 

In  a  letter  to  his  neighbor,  George  Mason,  written 
in  1769,  Washington  speaks  of  those  "who  live  genteely 
and  hospitably  on  clear  estates,"  and  this  is  an  exact 
description  in  eight  words  of  the  life  at  Mount  Vernon. 
Though  Washington  said  "we  live  in  a  state  of  peaceful 
tranquillity,"  Mount  Vernon  was  by  no  means  quiet. 
The  original  brass  knocker  hangs  on  the  central  door, 
but  I  doubt  if  it  was  ever  used,  for  long  before  reaching 
the  door  the  arrival  of  company  was  announced  by  the 
barking  of  the  dogs.  Martha  Washington  writes  that 
when  she  had  gone  on  a  visit  and  left  her  small  son  at 
home,  every  time  the  dogs  barked  she  thought  it  was  a 
messenger  for  her.  If  a  day  passed  without  company 
at  Mount  Vernon,  Washington  mentioned  it  in  his 
diary.  It  has  been  figured  out  that  in  two  months  in 
1768,  Washington  had  company  to  dinner  or  to  spend 
the  night  on  twenty-nine  days,  and  dined  away  or 
visited  on  seven.  People  whose  very  names  their  host 

34 


did  not  know  were  entertained  there.  Mount  Vernon 
stands  back  a  mile  from  the  road  to  Colchester.  Though 
the  house  can  be  seen  from  a  considerable  distance, 
people  did  not  arrive  there  by  accident.  In  1787 
Washington  wrote:  ''My  house  may  be  compared  to  a 
well  resorted  tavern,  as  scarcely  any  strangers  who 
are  going  from  north  to  south,  or  from  south  to  north, 
do  not  spend  a  day  or  two  at  it."  "Those  who  resort 
here  are  strangers  and  people  of  the  first  distinction." 
Washington  had  so  many  letters  to  write  and  so  much 
company  that  he  was  deprived  of  exercise.  Persons 
who  had  been  connected  with  the  army  wished  certifi 
cates  in  order  to  prove  claims  against  the  government; 
these  made  it  necessary  to  spend  much  time  consulting 
his  records.  For  more  than  two  years  after  the  war 
he  had  no  secretary.  If  David  Humphries,  Yale,  1771, 
who  was  later  one  of  his  secretaries  and  who  did  much 
literary  work  at  Mount  Vernon,  had  only  given  us  an 
exact  account  of  the  daily  life  there,  he  would  have 
earned  lasting  gratitude.  Instead  of  which  he  produced 
a  poem  in  the  stilted  manner  of  the  period,  beginning: 

"By  broad  Potowmack's  azure  tide, 
Where  Vernon's  Mount,  in  sylvan  pride 

Displays  its  beauties  far, 
Great  Washington,  to  peaceful  shades, 
Where  no  unhallow'd  wish  invades, 

Retir'd  from  fields  of  war." 

Though  he  lived  simply  and  kept  early  hours,  George 
Washington  always  paid  great  attention  to  the  manner 
of  doing  things,  and  the  grand  air  which  he  learned  in 
his  youth  from  Lord  Fairfax  he  always  retained.  Dis 
tinguished  guests  were  lighted  to  their  rooms  by  the 
General  himself.  The  broad  piazza  overlooking  the 
river  was  the  usual  meeting  place  when  the  weather 
permitted.  The  amount  of  entertaining  which  the 
Washingtons  expected  to  do  may  be  inferred  from  the 

35 


fact  that  six  carving  knives  and  forks  are  in  the  first 
order  from  England  after  their  marriage.  They  were 
both  of  them  particular  about  their  clothes,  china, 
furniture  and  equipages.  When  at  Mount  Vernon  Mrs. 
Washington  dressed  plainly.  When  she  drove  to  Alex 
andria  or  Annapolis  or  Williamsburg  with  her  coach 
and  four,  with  the  negro  postillions  and  coachman  in 
white  and  scarlet,  she  dressed  as  was  fitting.  In  Decem 
ber,  1755,  Washington  ordered  from  London  two  complete 
livery  suits  for  servants.  "I  would  have  you  choose 
the  livery  by  our  arms,  only  as  the  Field  of  the  Arms 
is  white;  I  think  the  cloaths  had  better  not  be  quite  so, 
but  nearly  like  the  Inclosed.  The  Trimmings  and 
Facings  of  Scarlet  and  a  scarlet  waistcoat.  If  Livery 
Lace  is  not  quite  disusd  I  should  be  glad  to  have  these 
cloaths  Lacd,  as  I  like  that  taste  best,  also  two  Silver 
Lacd  Hatts  to  the  above  Livery's."  August  10,  1764, 
he  ordered  "A  Livery  suit  to  be  made  of  worsted 
shagg  of  the  Inclosed  colour  and  fineness  lined  with  red 
shalloon  and  made  as  follows:  The  coat  and  Breeches 
alike  with  a  plain  white  washed  button — the  button 
holes  worked  with  mohair  of  the  same  colour.  A  collar 
of  red  shagg  to  the  coat  with  a  narrow  lace  like  Inclosed 
round  it — a  narrow  cuff  of  the  same  colour  of  the  coat 
turned  up  to  the  bent  of  the  arm  and  lacd  round  at 
that  part — the  waistcoat  made  of  red  shagg  (worsted 
shagg  also)  and  lacd  with  the  same  lace  as  that  upon 
the  collar  and  sleeves."  No  doubt  it  was  that  the  white 
flowers  of  the  dogwood  and  the  red  of  the  redwood 
might  reproduce  his  colors  that,  March  1,  1795,  Wash 
ington  planted  "A  circle  of  Dogwood  with  a  Red  bud 
in  the  middle  close  to  the  old  cherry  tree  near  the  south 
garden  house." 

Washington  paid  his  debts  promptly,  and  no  man 
was  more  liberal  to  the  poor  or  more  ready  to  give 
his  time  and  money  to  the  public  service.  When  he 

36 


took  command  of  the  Army,  in  1775,  he  wrote  Lund 
Washington,  who  had  charge  of  his  affairs  at  Mount 
Vernon:  "Let  the  hospitality  of  the  house,  with  respect 
to  the  poor,  be  kept  up.  Let  no  one  go  hungry  away. 
If  any  of  this  kind  of  people  should  be  in  want  of  corn, 
supply  their  necessities,  provided  it  does  not  encourage 
them  in  idleness;  and  I  have  no  objection  to  your  giving 
my  money  in  charity,  to  the  amount  of  forty  or  fifty 
pounds  a  year,  when  you  think  it  well  bestowed.  What 
I  mean  by  having  no  objection  is,  that  it  is  my  desire 
that  it  should  be  done."  "I  wish  that  my  horses  and 
stock  of  every  kind  should  be  fed  with  judicious  plenty 
and  economy,  but  without  the  least  profusion  or  waste." 
One  of  the  overseers  wrote:  "  I  had  orders  from 
General  Washington  to  fill  a  cornhouse  every  year,  for 
the  sole  use  of  the  poor  in  my  neighborhood,  to  whom 
it  was  a  most  seasonable  and  precious  relief,  saving 
numbers  of  poor  women  and  children  from  extreme 
want,  and  blessing  them  with  plenty  ...  He 
owned  several  fishing  stations  on  the  Potomac,  at  which 
excellent  herring  were  caught,  and  which,  when  salted, 
proved  an  important  article  of  food  to  the  poor.  For 
their  accommodation  he  appropriated  a  station — one  of 
the  best  he  had — and  furnished  it  with  all  the  necessary 
apparatus  for  taking  herring.  Here  the  honest  poor 
might  fish  free  of  expense,  at  any  time,  by  only  an  ap 
plication  to  the  overseer ;  and  if  at  any  time  unequal  to 
the  labor  of  hauling  the  seine,  assistance  was  rendered 
by  order  of  the  General."  In  1794,  Washington  gave 
his  overseer  definite  instructions  with  regard  to  the 
entertainment  of  visitors  at  Mount  Vernon.  There 
were,  he  said,  three  classes  of  persons  to  whom  should  be 
given:  "First,  my  particular  and  intimate  acquaintance, 
in  case  business  should  call  them  there,  such  for  in 
stance  as  Doctor  Craik, — 2ndly  some  of  the  most  respect 
able  foreigners  who  may,  perchance,  be  in  Alexandria  or 

37 


the  federal  city;  and  be  either  brought  down,  or  intro 
duced  by  letter  from  some  of  my  particular  acquaintance 
as  before  mentioned;  or  thirdly,  to  persons  of  some 
distinction  (such  as  members  of  Congress  &  etc)  who 
may  be  travelling  through  the  Country  from  North  to 
South,  or  from  south  to  North  ...  I  have  no 
objection  to  any  sober  or  orderly  person's  gratifying 
their  curiosity  in  viewing  the  buildings,  Gardens  &ct 
about  Mount  Vernon;  but  it  is  only  to  such  persons  as 
I  have  described,  that  I  ought  to  be  run  to  any  expense  on 
account  of  these  visits  of  curiosity,  beyond  common 
civility  and  hospitality, — No  gentleman  who  has  a 
proper  respect  for  his  own  character  (except  relations 
and  intimates)  would  use  the  house  in  my  absence  for 
the  sake  of  conveniency  (as  it  is  far  removed  from  the 
public  roads)  unless  invited  to  do  so  by  me  or  some 
friend; — nor  do  I  suppose  any  of  this  description  would 
go  there  without  a  personal  or  written  introduction." 
Washington's  ability  to  express  a  proposition  clearly 
and  to  refuse  a  request  gracefully  is  exemplified  in  the 
following  letter — which  he  wrote  October  30,  1787: 
"My  fixed  determination  is,  that  no  person  whatever 
shall  hunt  upon  my  grounds  or  waters — To  grant  leave 
to  one,  and  refuse  another,  would  not  only  be  drawing 
a  line  of  discrimination  which  would  be  offensive,  but 
would  subject  one  to  great  inconvenience — for  my  strict 
and  positive  orders  to  all  my  people  are  if  they  hear  a 
gun  fired  upon  my  land  to  go  immediately  in  pursuit 
of  it.  Permission  therefore  to  anyone  would  keep  them 
either  always  in  pursuit — or  make  them  inattentive  to 
my  orders  under  the  supposition  of  its  belonging  to  a 
licensed  person  by  which  means  I  should  be  obtruded 
upon  by  others  who  to  my  cost  I  find  had  other  objects 
in  view.  Besides,  as  I  have  not  lost  my  relish  for  this 
sport  when  I  can  find  time  to  indulge  myself  in  it,  and 
Gentlemen  who  come  to  the  House  are  pleased  with  it, 

38 


it  is  my  wish  not  to  have  the  game  within  my  jurisdic 
tion  disturbed.  For  these  reasons  I  beg  you  will  not 
take  my  refusal  amiss,  because  I  would  give  the  same 
to  my  brother  if  he  lived  off  my  land." 

It  is  entirely  owing  to  the  efforts  of  the  Mount 
Vernon  Ladies'  Association  that  when  you  cross  the 
threshold  of  the  mansion,  you  step  into  the  home  life 
of  the  Washingtons.  George  and  Martha  made  their 
house  a  beautiful  home,  filled  with  handsome  furniture 
of  a  period  when  furniture  was  noted  for  its  substantial 
elegance.  They  were  both  of  them  particular  about  the 
appointments  of  the  table,  and  Washington  goes  with 
minute  care  into  details  of  wine-glasses,  finger-bowls, 
decanters,  butter-boats,  tureens  and  other  dishes.  It 
is  possible  here  to  mention  but  a  few  of  the  priceless 
relics  of  Washington  with  which  the  Ladies  of  Mount 
Vernon  have  filled  the  mansion.  I  am  especially  inter 
ested  in  the  tools  with  which  Washington  worked.  His 
surveyor's  tripod  is  in  the  library.  At  sixteen  he  was 
earning  his  living  by  surveying,  and  he  worked  at  it  in 
later  years,  sometimes  making  surveys  of  Hunting 
Creek  and  other  streams  on  the  ice.  As  late  as  April 
21,  1785,  he  records  that  he  went  to  Abingdon  in  his 
barge,  "Took  my  instruments  with  intent  to  survey  the 
land  I  hold  by  purchase  on  four  mile  run  three  miles 
above  Alexandria,"  but  the  surveying  ended  abruptly, 
because  Billy  Lee,  who  was  carrying  the  chain,  fell  and 
broke  his  knee  pan,  so  that  he  had  to  be  carried  to 
Abingdon  on  a  sled,  as  he  could  neither  walk,  stand,  nor 
ride.  A  book  might  be  written  about  the  inkstand 
from  which  Washington  dipped  so  many  historic  lines. 
In  the  hall  are  the  swords  with  which  he  directed  his 
troops.  In  leaving  them  to  his  nephews  he  tells  them 
not  to  unsheath  them  for  the  purpose  of  shedding  blood, 
except  for  self-defense  or  in  defense  of  their  country  and 
its  rights,  and  in  the  latter  case  to  keep  them  unsheathed, 

39 


and  to  prefer  falling  with  them  in  their  hands  to  the 
relinquishment  thereof.  Washington's  spy-glasses  are 
poor  things  compared  with  modern  binoculars,  but  he 
was  the  best  observer  in  either  army,  and  always  wished 
to  do  his  reconnoitering  with  his  own  eyes.  He  strained 
his  eyes,  so  that  he  had  to  use  spectacles,  and  remarked 
that  he  had  not  only  grown  old  but  blind  in  the  service. 
You  will  see  the  implements  with  which  he  worked, 
but  you  will  look  in  vain  for  pictures  of  Washington 
crossing  the  Delaware,  or  of  Cornwallis  surrendering  at 
Yorktown ;  for,  as  the  poet  Prior  said  of  William  of  Orange, 
the  monuments  of  Washington's  actions  are  to  be  seen 
everywhere  except  in  his  own  house.  I  do  not  under 
stand  the  flute  in  the  music  room,  for  Washington  wrote 
Francis  Hopkinson  that  he  could  neither  sing  one  of 
his  songs  nor  raise  a  single  note  on  any  instrument.  In 
his  earliest  account-book  there  is  an  entry  when  Wash 
ington  was  sixteen  "to  cash  pd  ye  Musick  Master  for 
my  Entrance  3/9."  An  artist  has  painted  the  old 
Washington  at  Mount  Vernon  playing  the  flute,  and 
another  well-known  painting  represents  the  Washingtons 
entertaining  Lafayette  on  the  piazza,  the  party  being 
seated  in  the  best  parlor  chairs.  Mrs.  Washington  was 
too  careful  a  housekeeper  to  take  her  parlor  chairs  out 
even  for  Lafayette,  and  thirty  Windsor  chairs  were  pro 
vided  for  the  porch.  The  large  number  of  chairs  indi 
cates  that  the  Washingtons  had  to  be  prepared  to  re 
ceive  many  friends.  A  better  subject  for  a  painter, 
and  one  which  has  never  been  used,  is  furnished  by 
Elkanah  Watson,  who,  in  January,  1785,  spent  at  Mount 
Vernon  what  he  calls  "two  of  the  richest  days  of  my 
life."  He  says:  "I  found  him  (Washington)  kind  and 
benignant  in  the  domestic  circle,  revered  and  beloved 
by  all  around  him;  agreeably  social,  without  ostenta 
tion;  delighting  in  anecdote  and  adventures,  without 
assumption;  his  domestic  arrangements  harmonious 

40 


and  systematic.  His  servants  seemed  to  watch  his 
eye,  and  to  anticipate  his  every  wish;  hence  a  look  was 
equivalent  to  a  command.  His  servant,  Billy,  the 
faithful  companion  of  his  military  career,  was  always  at 
his  side,  smiling  content,  animated  and  beamed  on  every 
countenance  in  his  presence."  Watson  had  a  severe 
cough,  and  he  says,  some  time  after  he  had  retired,  "the 
door  of  my  room  was  gently  opened  and  on  drawing  my 
bed-curtains,  to  my  utter  astonishment,  I  beheld  Wash 
ington  himself,  standing  at  my  bed-side  with  a  bowl  of 
hot  tea  in  his  hand."  What  a  picture:  the  General  with 
his  old  military  cloak  thrown  over  his  broad  shoulders, 
a  candle  in  one  hand  and  the  bowl  of  tea  in  the  other, 
and  the  astonished  face  of  Watson  peering  out  between 
the  bed  curtains!  I  wonder  how  Washington  got  that 
tea  in  those  days  when  water  froze  in  the  kettle  at  night 
and  they  had  to  light  the  fire  with  a  flint.  Watson  says 
that  Washington  talked  about  little  else  for  two  days 
but  the  navigation  of  the  Potomac. 

In  the  hall  hangs  the  original  deed  of  1674  by 
which  John  Washington,  the  emigrant,  great  grand 
father  of  George,  derived  from  Lord  Culpepper  his 
title  to  Mount  Vernon.  If  you  are  fond  of  puzzles 
try  to  read  it.  The  Houdon  bust,  which  Stuart  called 
the  only  representation  of  Washington  better  than 
his  own  portraits,  was  made  at  Mount  Vernon.  It 
is  by  no  means  the  least  of  the  debts  America  owes 
to  France.  Houdon,  the  most  celebrated  sculptor 
of  that  time,  came  from  France  at  the  request  of 
the  General  Assembly  of  Virginia  in  order  to  model 
Washington  from  life.  With  his  three  assistants  he 
arrived  from  Alexandria  by  water  at  eleven  o'clock 
at  night.  He  remained  about  three  weeks,  and  made  a 
cast  of  the  face,  head  and  shoulders  and  took  minute 
measurements  of  the  body.  Amid  so  much  that  is 
vague  and  legendary,  the  Houdon  statue  stands  forth 

41 


clear  in  its  artistic  and  historic  accuracy.  No  work  of 
art  exists  that  is  more  authentic.  "From  its  inception 
to  its  completion  it  is  historically  marked  by  a  chrono 
logical  record  of  facts,  resolutions,  correspondence  and 
inscriptions  which  will  preserve  its  identity  and  char 
acter  through  all  time ;  and  what  is  most  rare,  its  per 
fect  similitude  to  the  original  is  established  by  facts  and 
opinions  as  convincing  as  human  testimony  can  fur 
nish."  Lafayette  said  that  it  is  a  "fac-simile  of  Wash 
ington's  Person." 

Other  representations  of  Washington  had  been 
executed  at  Mount  Vernon  before  the  arrival  of 
Houdon.  In  May,  1772,  Charles  Willson  Peale  painted 
Washington  in  the  blue  and  red  uniform  of  a  colonel  of 
Virginia  militia,  and  he  made  also  miniatures  of  Mrs. 
Washington  and  her  two  children.  Peale  returned  in 
January,  1774,  and  painted  the  portrait  of  John  Parke 
Custis.  Peale  says  in  his  diary  that,  as  he  was  leaving, 
Colonel  Washington  gave  him  a  cup  and  saucer  to  take 
to  his  wife  as  a  souvenir.  April  28,  1784,  Robert  Edge 
Pine  came  and  remained  three  weeks,  painting  Wash 
ington  and  the  two  grandchildren,  George  Washington 
Custis  and  Nelly  Custis. 

The  Key  of  the  Bastille,  sent  to  Washington  by 
Lafayette,  gives  an  international  emphasis  to  Wash 
ington's  efforts  for  freedom.  The  fourteenth  of  July, 
1789,  the  day  of  the  destruction  of  that  fortress, 
where  for  four  hundred  years  Frenchmen  had  been 
imprisoned  without  a  trial,  is  to  the  French  what  the 
Fourth  of  July  is  to  us. 

At  Mount  Vernon  the  cultivation  of  no  part  of 
Washington's  nature  was  neglected.  He  found  abundant 
exercise  for  his  body  in  hard  work  on  his  farms,  in  the 
long  rides  which  it  was  necessary  for  him  to  take,  in 
hunting  with  his  horses  and  hounds,  and  he  was  a  stately 
and  graceful  dancer.  Books,  letters,  pondering  on  im- 

42 


portant  matters  and  converse  with  intellectual  neigh 
bors  like  George  Mason  and  Lord  Fairfax,  exercised  his 
mind.  He  found  uplift  for  his  soul  in  reading  his  Bible, 
in  communion  with  his  good  wife,  who  was  a  woman  of 
eminent  piety,  and  in  the  church  services  at  Pohick  and 
Alexandria.  On  Sundays,  when  the  Washingtons  were 
stormbound,  he  read  the  Bible  and  sermons  to  his  family 
with  distinct  and  precise  enunciation.  There  is  a  book 
entirely  in  his  writing  of  prayers  for  the  mornings  and 
evenings  of  different  days  of  the  week,  which  he  care 
fully  compiled  from  sentences  in  the  Book  of  Common 
Prayer,  and  there  is  a  pocket  note-book  in  which  Wash 
ington  has  entered  Bible  references.  With  the  exception 
of  an  interlined  note,  all  the  entries  in  the  family  Bible 
are  in  his  writing.  In  1794  he  wrote  Charles  Thompson 
that  he  had  finished  reading  the  first  part  of  his  trans 
lation  of  the  Septuagint.  Washington  often  quotes  the 
Scriptures,  his  favorite  reference  being  to  the  verse  in 
Micah  about  reposing  under  his  own  vine  and  fig-tree. 
He  expresses  a  wish  that  the  swords  might  be  turned  to 
plough  shares,  the  spears  into  pruning-hooks,  and  as  the 
Scripture  expresses  it,  "the  nations  learn  war  no  more." 
He  regrets  that  Noah  allowed  the  tobacco  worms  to  get 
into  the  ark,  and  in  my  "Washington  as  Man  of  Letters" 
I  have  given  other  quotations  showing  that  Washington 
was  very  familiar  with  the  Bible.  His  nephew,  Robert 
Lewis,  said  that  he  had  accidentally  witnessed  Wash 
ington's  private  devotions  in  his  library  both  morning 
and  evening,  and  had  seen  him  kneeling  with  an  open 
Bible  before  him,  and  that  this  was  his  daily  habit. 
Washington  went  to  his  library  at  four  in  the  morning, 
and,  after  his  devotions,  spent  the  time  till  breakfast  in 
writing  and  study.  He  also  spent  an  hour  in  his  library 
before  retiring  at  night,  and  he  wrote:  "It  is  my  inten 
tion  to  retire  (and  unless  prevented  by  very  particular 
company,  I  always  do  retire)  either  to  bed  or  to  my  study 

43 


soon  after  candlelight."  The  library  was  rich  in  books 
of  devotion,  and  Mrs.  Washington  is  known  to  have 
been  a  great  reader  of  them.  That  the  General  read 
them  also  is  shown  by  his  letters.  In  1789,  acknowledg 
ing  a  sermon  on  the  text  "But  ye  shall  die  like  men," 
Washington  not  only  says  that  he  has  read  the  sermon, 
but  also  that  he  approves  the  doctrine  inculcated. 
August  14,  1797,  Washington  wrote  the  Reverend  Zacha- 
riah  Lewis,  thanking  him  for  the  sermons  he  had  sent,  and 
saying  that  the  doctrine  in  them  is  sound  and  does  credit 
to  the  author.  Nelly  Custis  wrote  Jared  Sparks  with 
regard  to  Washington:  "He  attended  the  church  at 
Alexandria  when  the  weather  and  roads  permitted,  a 
ride  of  ten  miles.  In  New  York  and  Philadelphia  he 
never  omitted  attendance  at  church  in  the  morning, 
unless  detained  by  indisposition.  The  afternoon  was 
spent  in  his  own  room  at  home;  the  evening  with  his 
family,  and  without  company.  Sometimes  an  old  and 
intimate  friend  called  to  see  us  for  an  hour  or  two;  but 
visiting  and  visitors  were  prohibited  for  that  day.  No 
one  in  church  attended  to  the  services  with  more  rev 
erential  respect.  My  grandmother,  who  was  eminently 
pious,  never  deviated  from  her  early  habits.  She  always 
knelt.  The  General,  as  was  then  the  custom,  stood 
during  the  devotional  parts  of  the  service."  Bishop 
White  states  that  Washington's  manner  at  church  was 
always  serious  and  attentive.  A  foreign  house  guest  at 
Mount  Vernon  observed  that  on  Sabbath  evening  there 
was  no  secular  music  and  not  even  a  game  of  chess. 
Throughout  his  campaigns  Washington  was  always  care 
ful  about  religious  services.  William  Fairfax  wrote  him 
in  1754  that  he  had  no  doubt  that  his  having  public 
prayers  in  camp  would  have  great  influence  with  the 
Indians.  Washington  read  the  funeral  service  over 
General  Braddock,  and  as  a  young  officer  frequently 
read  prayers  and  the  Scriptures  to  his  men.  During  the 

44 


French  and  Indian  War  Colonel  Temple  "more  than 
once  found  him  on  his  knees  at  his  devotions."  In  his 
diary  Washington  records:  "Williamsburg  June  1,  1774, 
went  to  church  and  fasted  all  day."  Unless  a  clergyman 
was  present  Washington  always  asked  a  blessing  at  his 
table.  We  have  seen  how  particular  Augustine  Wash 
ington  was  in  his  attendance  on  vestry  meetings.  The 
Pohick  vestry  book  shows  that  his  son  was  equally 
scrupulous.  From  1763  to  1774  George  Washington 
attended  twenty-three  of  the  thirty-one  meetings  of 
Pohick  vestry,  once  he  was  sick  in  bed,  twice  he  was  in 
attendance  on  the  House  of  Burgesses,  and  three  times 
he  is  known  to  have  been  out  of  the  county,  and  the 
other  two  times  he  was  probably  out  of  county.  Rev. 
Charles  Green,  who  was  rector  of  Pohick,  1738-65,  was 
also  the  family  physician  and  a  valued  friend.  His  suc 
cessor,  Rev.  Lee  Massey,  wrote:  "I  never  knew  so  con 
stant  an  attendant  in  church  as  Washington,  and  his 
behavior  in  the  house  of  God  was  ever  so  deeply  rev 
erential  that  it  produced  the  happiest  effect  on  my  con 
gregation  and  greatly  assisted  me  in  my  pulpit  labors. 
No  company  ever  withheld  him  from  church.  I  have 
often  been  at  Mount  Vernon  on  Sabbath  morning,  when 
his  breakfast  table  was  filled  with  guests;  but  to  him  they 
furnished  no  pretext  for  neglecting  his  God  and  losing 
the  satisfaction  of  setting  a  good  example.  For,  in 
stead  of  staying  at  home  out  of  false  complaisance  to 
them,  he  used  constantly  to  invite  them  to  accompany 
him."  It  has  been  objected  that  Washington's  diary 
shows  that  in  1760  he  went  to  Pohick  church  but  sixteen 
times,  but  services  were  not  held  at  Pohick  every  Sun 
day.  Doubtless  there  were  Sundays  when  bad  roads  and 
inclement  weather  made  it  impossible  to  get  there,  and 
there  were  other  Sundays  when  Washington  was  away 
from  home.  It  is  even  possible  that  he  may  have  been 
to  church  and  omitted  to  enter  the  fact  in  his  diary. 

45 


There  are  numerous  records  of  Washington's  attending 
church  when  away  from  home.  Jared  Sparks,  who 
studied  Washington's  manuscripts  as  no  other  person 
has  been  able  to  do,  states:  "After  a  long  and  minute 
examination  of  the  writings  of  Washington,  public  and 
private,  in  print  and  in  manuscript,  I  can  affirm  that 
I  have  never  seen  a  single  hint  or  expression  from  which 
it  could  be  inferred  that  he  had  any  doubt  of  the  Chris 
tian  revelation,  or  that  he  thought  with  indifference 
or  unconcern  of  that  subject.  On  the  contrary,  whenever 
he  approaches  it,  and  indeed  whenever  he  alludes  in 
any  manner  to  religion,  it  is  done  with  seriousness  and 
reverence."  "If  a  man,  who  spoke,  wrote,  and  acted 
as  a  Christian  through  a  long  life,  who  gave  numerous 
proofs  of  his  believing  himself  to  be  such,  and  who  was 
never  known  to  say,  write  or  do  a  thing  contrary  to  his 
professions,  if  such  a  man  is  not  to  be  ranked  among  the 
believers  of  Christianity,  it  would  be  impossible  to  estab 
lish  the  point  by  any  train  of  reasoning." 

When  in  1773  Mrs.  Washington's  only  daughter, 
beautiful  Patsy  Custis,  was  fatally  stricken,  Washington 
knelt  by  her  side  and  prayed  fervently  for  her  recovery. 
His  diary  states,  June  19th:  "At  home  all  day — about 
five  o'clock  poor  Patsy  Custis  died  suddenly."  The  next 
day  Washington  wrote:  "She  expired  in  less  than  two 
minutes  without  uttering  a  word  or  groan  or  scarce  a 
sigh,  the  sweet  innocent  girl  entered  into  a  more  happy 
and  peaceful  abode  than  she  has  met  with  in  the  afflicted 
path  she  has  hitherto  trod.  It  is  an  easier  matter  to 
conceive  than  to  describe  the  distress  of  this  family 
at  the  loss  of  dear  Patsy  Custis.  This  sudden  and  un 
expected  blow,  I  need  scarce  add  has  almost  reduced  my 
poor  wife  to  the  lowest  ebb  of  misery ;  which  is  increased 
by  the  absence  of  her  son  who  is  a  student  in  King's 
College,  New  York."  Patsy  was  laid  to  rest  in  the  old 
tomb  on  the  twentieth.  The  diary  states  the  nineteenth 

46 


was  very  warm  and  clear,  with  a  south  wind.  The  day  of 
the  funeral  it  was  still  very  warm,  with  thunder  and 
appearances  of  rain,  but  none  fell  at  Mount  Vernon. 
The  custom  of  placing  the  tomb  near  the  mansion  caused 
the  departed  to  continue  in  a  peculiar  and  intimate 
manner  members  of  the  household,  and  the  proximity  of 
the  mortal  remains  of  loved  ones  like  Patsy  Custis  and 
Lawrence  Washington  kept  the  eternal  verities  constantly 
before  the  thoughtful  mind. 

Washington  could  not  have  been  the  man  he  was 
without  the  inspiration  of  his  deeply  pious  nature.  No 
one  was  more  fully  convinced  than  he  that  without 
righteousness  no  nation  can  be  exalted,  and  this  funda 
mental  truth  pervades  his  voluminous  writings.  There 
is  no  sentiment  more  sincere  or  more  frequent  than  his 
confidence  in  God  and  gratitude  for  His  mercies.  In 
1755,  after  his  campaign  with  Braddock,  Washington 
writes:  "By  all  the  powerful  dispensations  of  Provi 
dence,  I  have  been  protected  beyond  all  human  prob 
ability  or  expectation ;  for  I  had  four  bullets  through  my 
coat  and  two  horses  shot  under  me,  yet  escaped  unhurt 
although  death  was  levelling  my  companions  on  every 
side  of  me."  In  1789  he  wrote:  "When  I  contemplate 
the  interposition  of  Providence,  as  it  was  manifested  in 
guiding  us  through  the  Revolution,  in  preparing  us  for 
the  reception  of  a  General  Government,  and  in  conciliat 
ing  the  good  will  of  the  people  of  America  towards  one 
another,  after  its  adoption,  I  feel  myself  oppressed  and 
almost  overwhelmed,  with  a  sense  of  the  Divine  Munifi 
cence."  "I  am  sure  there  never  was  a  people,  who  had 
more  reason  to  acknowledge  a  divine  interposition  in 
their  affairs,  than  those  of  the  United  States ;  and  I  should 
be  pained  to  believe  that  they  have  forgotten  that  agency, 
which  was  so  often  manifested  during  our  Revolution 
or  that  they  failed  to  consider  the  omnipotence  of  that 
God,  who  is  alone  able  to  protect  them." 

47 


Little  has  been  written  about  the  conferences  which 
some  of  the  most  important  men  of  those  critical  times 
held  at  Mount  Vernon.  George  Mason,  who  drafted  the 
first  Constitution  of  Virginia,  lived  at  Gunston  Hall,  a 
few  miles  down  the  river.  Among  Washington's  papers 
are  the  Fairfax  Resolves,  in  the  writing  of  Mason,  adopted 
by  a  committee  of  which  Washington  was  chairman, 
July  18,  1774.  There  were  twenty-four  of  these  resolu 
tions,  forming  one  of  the  most  important  documents  in 
our  early  history.  They  may  be  summed  up  in  the 
statement — we  will  religiously  maintain  and  inviolably 
adhere  to  such  measures  as  shall  be  concerted  by  the 
general  Congress  for  the  preservation  of  our  lives, 
liberties  and  fortunes.  Jefferson  drafted  the  Declaration 
of  Independence,  but  the  essential  ideas  of  that  great 
document  may  be  found  in  the  Fairfax  resolves,  with 
which  Jefferson  as  a  Virginia  statesman  was  perfectly 
familiar.  There  can  be  little  doubt  that  Washington 
and  Mason  did  a  large  part  of  the  work  on  these  resolu 
tions  at  Mount  Vernon.  Two  weeks  later  these  resolves 
were  in  effect  adopted  by  the  Virginia  Convention,  where 
Washington  represented  Fairfax  County,  and  they  formed 
the  basis  of  Virginia's  instructions  to  her  delegates  to 
the  first  Continental  Congress.  Before  that  Congress 
Washington  enters  in  his  diary:  "August  30 — Colo. 
Pendleton,  Mr.  Henry,  Colo.  Mason,  and  Mr.  Thos. 
Triplet,  came  in  the  evening  and  stayed  all  night. 
31.  All  the  above  gentlemen  dined  here ;  after  which  with 
Colo.  Pendleton  and  Mr.  Henry,  I  set  out  on  my  journey 
to  Philadelphia."  Horatio  Gates,  Henry  Lee  and  others 
had  an  important  conference  at  Mount  Vernon,  May  3, 
1775,  and  the  next  day  Washington  set  out  for  the 
Second  Congress  at  Philadelphia.  Historians  have  paid 
little  attention  to  the  Mount  Vernon  Convention  held 
in  March,  1785.  At  this  time  our  country  was  in  greater 
peril  than  during  the  war,  because  the  pressure  from 

48 


without,  which  held  the  states  together,  being  removed, 
they  were  in  danger  of  falling  apart,  so  that  Washington 
wrote:  "what  astonishing  changes  a  few  years  are  capable 
of  producing.  I  am  told  that  even  respectable  characters 
speak  of  a  monarchical  form  of  government  without 
tiorror.  From  thinking  proceeds  speaking;  thence  to 
acting  is  often  but  a  step.  But  how  irrevocable  and 
tremendous."  Commissioners  had  been  appointed  by 
Maryland  and  Virginia  to  settle  the  navigatibn  and 
jurisdiction  of  the  Chesapeake  and  Potomac.  Among  the 
delegates  were  Daniel  of  St.  Thomas  Jenifer,  Samuel 
Chase  and  George  Mason.  The  commission  recom 
mended  a  uniformity  of  duties,  currency  and  commercial 
regulations,  and,  in  consequence  of  this,  Virginia  sent 
out  an  invitation  to  all  the  states  which  resulted  in  the 
convention  which  framed  our  Constitution.  A  pleasant 
instance  of  neighborly  courtesy  is  described  when 
Washington  recorded  in  his  diary  that  he  sent  Mr.  Mason 
home  from  the  convention  in  his  carriage,  "by  the  return 
of  which  he  sent  me  some  young  shoots  of  the  Persian 
jessamine  and  Guelder  rose." 

Washington  took  great  pains  to  secure  the  most 
exact  information  on  subjects  which  interested  him. 
All  his  life  he  was  buying  books.  His  library  of  more 
than  a  thousand  volumes,  mostly  on  agriculture,  govern 
ment  and  military  affairs  was  a  large  one  for  that  time. 
An  interesting  date  is  Friday,  June  16,  1786,  when  Wash 
ington  records:  "Began  about  10  o'clock  toput  up  the  book 
press  in  my  study."  Washington  had  at  Mount  Vernon 
more  than  two  hundred  folio  volumes  of  his  documents, 
and  these  formed  only  a  part  of  his  manuscripts.  His 
diary  speaks  of  entire  days  spent  in  writing.  In  1797, 
he  states  that  he  intends  to  erect  a  building  at  Mount 
Vernon  for  the  security  of  his  papers.  How  restful  it 
was  for  him  to  turn  aside  from  weighty  and  perplexing 
matters  of  state  and  the  selfish  designs  of  politicians,  and 

49 


to  write:  "I  have  a  high  opinion  of  beans."  "Of  all  the 
improving  and  ameliorating  crops,  none  in  my  opinion 
is  equal  to  potatoes."  It  was  in  his  library  that  Wash 
ington  made  those  painstaking  studies  of  republican 
forms  of  government,  the  notes  of  which  still  exist 
in  his  writing.  He  made  good  use  of  them  when  he 
presided  at  the  Constitutional  Convention,  which  con 
vened  in  1787.  We  form  a  better  idea  of  his  sacrifices 
for  our  country  as  we  picture  him  before  the  convention, 
going  around  Mount  Vernon  for  ten  days  with  his  arm 
in  a  sling  because  of  rheumatism.  Few  Americans  under 
stand  that  if  we  had  had  no  Washington  we  should  not 
have  had  our  Constitution;  not  only  because  of  his 
powerful  agency  in  framing  it  and  his  great  influence 
in  securing  its  adoption,  but  because  the  certainty  that 
Washington  would  be  first  President  made  the  people 
sure  that  the  provisions  of  the  Constitution  would  be 
interpreted  with  wisdom  and  executed  with  justice. 
Not  until  Washington  was  elected  was  the  chief  power 
in  America  vested  in  a  single  person,  and  in  Washington 
the  highest  power  was  entrusted  to  the  most  worthy, 
which  is  the  greatest  assurance  of  good  government. 
Respect  for  Washington  among  the  nations  of  Europe 
gave  dignity  to  our  new  government. 

In  1791  Major  L'Enfant,who  had  served  as  engineer 
in  the  American  army,  spent  some  time  with  Washing 
ton  at  Mount  Vernon,  and  in  consultation  with  the  Presi 
dent  drew  up  the  plans  of  the  Federal  City,  which  was 
afterwards  called  Washington.  In  September,  1798, 
Washington  laid  the  corner  stone  of  the  capitol.  There 
is  no  doubt  that  nothing  but  the  extreme  conscientious 
ness  of  Washington,  and  his  reluctance  to  use  his  in 
fluence  for  his  own  advantage,  is  responsible  for  locating 
the  Federal  City  so  far  away  from  Mount  Vernon. 

It  was  from  Mount  Vernon,  May  20,  1792,  that 
Washington  wrote  Madison  concerning  matters  which 

50 


he  says  he  had  been  revolving  in  his  mind  with  thoughtful 
anxiety.  He  asked  Madison  to  turn  his  thoughts  to  a 
valedictory  address,  and  to  say,  among  other  things: 
"That  we  are  all  the  children  of  the  same  country,  a 
country  great  and  rich  in  itself — capable  and  promising 
to  be  as  prosperous  and  as  happy  as  any  the  annals  of 
history  have  ever  brought  to  our  view — that  our  interest, 
however  diversified  in  local  and  smaller  matters,  is  the 
same  in  all  the  great  and  essential  concerns  of  the  nation. 
That  the  extent  of  our  country — the  diversity  of  our 
climate  and  soil — and  the  various  productions  of  the 
States  consequent  of  both,  are  such  as  to  make  one  part 
not  only  convenient,  but  perhaps  indispensably  neces 
sary  to  the  other  part;  and  may  render  the  whole  (at 
no  distant  period)  one  of  the  most  independent  in  the 
world.  That  the  established  government  being  the  work 
of  our  own  hands,  with  the  seeds  of  amendment  engrafted 
in  the  Constitution  may  by  wisdom,  good  dispositions, 
and  mutual  allowances;  aided  by  experience,  bring  it  as 
near  to  perfection  as  any  human  institution  ever  approxi 
mated;  and  therefore,  the  only  strife  among  us  ought  to 
be,  who  should  be  foremost  in  facilitating  and  finally 
accomplishing  such  great  and  desirable  objects;  by  giv 
ing  every  possible  support  and  cement  to  the  Union." 
Here  we  have  the  idea  of  the  Farewell  Address  carefully 
thought  out  by  Washington  at  Mount  Vernon  more  than 
four  years  before  the  address  was  published.  Washing 
ton  was  at  Mount  Vernon  from  June  20  to  August  17, 
1796,  and  made  the  final  draft  of  his  Farewell  Address, 
which  was  made  public  in  September.  Lossing  wrote: 
"Of  all  the  associations  which  cluster  around  Mount 
Vernon,  none  should  be  dearer  to  the  heart  of  freedom 
and  good  order  than  that  connected  with  Washington's 
Farewell  Address."  And  Daniel  Webster  said:  "Whenever 
his  Farewell  Address  to  his  country  shall  be  forgotten, 
and  its  admonitions  rejected  by  the  people  of  America, 

51 


from  that  time  it  will  become  a  farewell  address  to  all 
the  bright  hopes  of  human  liberty  on  earth." 

While  the  sweet  influences  of  Mount  Vernon  are  sink 
ing  into  our  souls,  let  us  not  forget  the  gracious  lady  who 
inspired  and  comforted  her  husband  throughout  so  many 
anxious  years.  Martha  Washington  preferred  to  re 
main  in  the  background,  so  that  her  services  to  our 
country  have  never  been  understood  and  appreciated. 
She  always  encouraged  the  General  to  patriotic  effort 
at  the  sacrifice  of  that  domestic  life  to  which  both  were 
devoted.  At  the  very  beginning  of  the  Revolution  she 
wrote:  "My  mind  is  made  up;  my  heart  is  in  the  cause." 
For  that  cause,  which  was  our  cause,  the  Washingtons 
placed  at  stake  their  lives  and  all  their  earthly  possessions. 
Late  in  August,  1774,  Patrick  Henry  and  Edmund  Pendle- 
ton  spent  the  night  at  Mount  Vernon,  before  setting  out 
with  Washington  for  Philadelphia  to  attend  the  first 
Continental  Congress.  Mr.  Pendleton  has  left  a  charm 
ing  description  of  their  hostess  at  this  critical  period: 
"I  was  much  pleased  with  Mrs.  Washington  and  her 
spirit.  She  seemed  ready  to  make  any  sacrifice,  and  was 
cheerful,  though  I  know  she  felt  anxious.  She  talked  like 
a  Spartan  mother  to  her  son  on  going  to  battle.  'I  hope 
you  will  all  stand  firm.  I  know  George  will,'  she  said. 
The  dear  little  woman  was  busy  from  morning  until  night 
with  domestic  duties,  but  she  gave  us  much  time  in  con 
versation  and  affording  us  entertainment.  When  we 
set  off  in  the  morning,  she  stood  in  the  door  and  cheered 
us  with  the  good  words,  'God  be  with  you,  gentlemen.' 
Martha  Washington  little  thought,  when  she  said  good 
bye  to  her  husband  in  May,  1775,  that  it  would  be  more 
than  six  years  before  he  returned  to  Mount  Vernon,  and 
that  when  she  saw  him  next  he  would  be  five  hundred 
miles  away  from  home,  at  the  head  of  the  American  army. 
Till  she  went  to  Cambridge  she  had  never  been  farther 

52 


north  than  Alexandria.  She  travelled  in  state  in  the 
family  coach,  attended  by  liveried  servants  and  accom 
panied  by  her  son  and  his  wife.  She  filled  her  difficult 
position  at  Headquarters  in  the  Longfellow  house  with 
tact  and  courtesy,  for  she  was  equal  to  every  situation  in 
which  her  husband's  exalted  station  placed  her.  The 
uniform  testimony  of  those  who  knew  Martha  Washing 
ton  is  that  she  combined,  in  an  extraordinary  degree,  dig 
nity  and  affability.  You  will  realize  her  delicacy  of  feeling 
and  elevation  of  character  when  you  read  this  exquisite 
letter  which  Martha  Washington  wrote  in  1773  to  the 
girl  bride  of  her  only  son : 

My  dear  Nelly:  God  took  from  Me  a  Daughter 
when  June  Roses  were  blooming.  He  has  now  given  me 
another  daughter  about  her  Age  when  Winter  winds  are 
blowing,  to  warm  my  Heart  again.  I  am  as  Happy  as 
One  so  Afflicted  and  so  Blest  can  be.  Pray  receive  my 
Benediction  and  a  wish  that  you  may  long  live  the 
Loving  Wife  of  my  Happy  Son,  and  a  Loving  Daughter  of 
Your  Affectionate  Mother, 

M.  WASHINGTON. 

It  is  to  be  regretted  that  no  letter  from  Mrs.  Wash 
ing  to  her  husband  has  been  preserved,  and  that  there 
are  only  three  letters  that  he  wrote  her.  Here  is  one 
that  is  little  known.  It  was  written  as  the  newly  ap 
pointed  general  was  setting  out  to  take  command  of  the 
American  army,  and  was  found  in  Mrs.  Washington's 
writing  desk  after  her  death. 

PHILADELPHIA,  June  23d. 

My  Dearest:  As  I  am  within  a  few  minutes  of 
leaving  this  city,  I  could  not  think  of  departing  from  it 
without  dropping  you  a  line;  especially  as  I  do  not  know 
whether  it  may  be  in  my  power  to  write  again  till  I  get 
to  the  camp  at  Boston.  I  go  fully  trusting  in  that  Prov- 

53 


idence,  which  has  been  more  bountiful  to  me  than  I 
deserve,  and  in  full  confidence  of  a  happy  meeting  with 
you  some  time  in  the  fall. 

I  have  not  time  to  add  more  as  I  am  surrounded  with 
company  to  take  leave  of  me.  I  retain  an  unalterable 
affection  for  you,  which  neither  time  or  distance  can 
change.  My  best  love  to  Jack  and  Nelly,  and  regards  to 
the  rest  of  the  Family,  concludes  me  with  the  utmost 
truth  and  sincerity. 

Your  entire, 

G.  WASHINGTON. 

On  his  appointment  to  command  of  the  army,  Wash 
ington  wrote  his  half-brother,  John  Augustine:  "I  shall 
hope  that  my  friends  will  visit  and  endeavor  to  keep  up 
the  spirits  of  my  wife  as  much  as  they  can,  for  my  de 
parture  will,  I  know,  be  a  cutting  stroke  upon  her;  and 
on  this  account  I  have  many  disagreeable  sensations." 
The  General  also  wrote  Jack  Gustis  that  he  thought  it 
absolutely  necessary  for  the  peace  and  satisfaction  of  his 
mother  that  he  and  his  wife  should  live  at  Mount  Vernon 
during  his  own  absence. 

Mrs.  Washington  described  herself  as  being  "a 
kind  of  walking  perambulator"  during  the  war.  She 
spent  every  winter  with  the  General  at  headquarters, 
and  said  that  she  heard  the  first  and  last  guns  every 
season,  and  "marched  home  when  the  campaign  was 
about  to  open."  Lord  Dunmore  came  up  the  Poto 
mac  to  capture  her,  but  the  Virginia  militia  assem 
bled  in  such  numbers  that  he  did  not  dare  to  attempt  it. 
When  her  friends  advised  her  to  move  back  into  the 
interior  of  the  country,  she  said:  "No,  I  will  not  desert  my 
post."  Valuables  and  important  papers  were  kept  in 
trunks,  so  that  they  could  be  moved  at  a  moment's  no 
tice.  In  those  times,  when  there  were  no  telegraphs  and 
telephones,  what  anxious  days  Martha  Washington  must 

54 


have  spent  when  important  operations  were  in  progress ! 
For  instance,  when  the  British  army  was  landing  at  the 
head  of  Elk,  about  to  fight  a  battle  which  they  expected 
would  destroy  her  husband's  army.  Late  in  August, 
1777,  while  reconnoitering  before  the  battle  of  the  Bran 
dy  wine,  Washington  spent  the  night  near  the  Head  of 
Elk.  This  was  the  nearest  that  he  came  to  Mount  Ver- 
non  during  the  war  until,  as  he  enters  in  his  diary  in  1781 : 
"Sunday  September  9th.  I  reached  my  own  Seat  at 
Mount  Vernon  (distance  120  miles  from  Head  of  Elk) 
where  I  staid  till  the  12th."  The  10th,  Washington  wrote 
Lafayette:  "We  are  thus  far  on  our  way  to  you.  The 
Count  de  Rochambeau  has  just  arrived.  General 
Ghastellux  will  be  here  and  we  propose,  after  resting 
to-morrow  to  be  at  Fredericksburg  on  the  night  of  the 
12th."  It  is  safe  to  say  that  no  more  welcome  visitor 
ever  has  been  or  will  be  received  at  Mount  Vernon,  for 
Rochambeau  was  in  command  of  the  army  of  France,  and 
they  were  on  their  way  to  York  town.  About  this  time, 
however,  Mount  Vernon  had  other  visitors  of  distinc 
tion.  As  far  as  I  know,  this  letter  has  never  been  pub 
lished.  It  tells  of  a  hurried  visit  paid  to  Mount  Vernon 
by  Generals  Greene  and  Steuben  during  the  Southern 
Campaign,  and  was  written  to  Washington  by  General 
Greene. 

MOUNT  VERNON,  November  13th,  1780. 

Sir:  I  arrived  here  yesterday  about  noon,  and  met  with  a 
kind  and  hospitable  reception  by  Mrs.  Washington  and 
all  the  family.  Mrs.  Washington,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Custis 
(who  are  here)  and  Mr.  Lund  Washington  and  his  Lady 
are  all  well. 

We  set  out  this  morning  for  Richmond,  and  it  is 
now  so  early  that  I  am  obliged  to  write  by  candlelight. 
Nothing  but  the  absolute  necessity  of  my  being  with  my 
command  as  soon  as  possible  should  induce  me  to  make 
my  stay  so  short  at  your  Excellency's  seat,  where  there 

55 


is  everything  that  nature  and  art  can  afford  to  render  my 
stay  happy  and  agreeable.  Mount  Vernon  is  one  of  the 
most  pleasant  places  I  ever  saw;  and  I  don't  wonder 
that  you  languish  so  often  to  return  to  the  pleasures  of 
domestic  life.  Nothing  but  the  glory  of  being  Com 
mander  in  Chief,  and  the  happiness  of  being  universally 
admired  could  compensate  a  person  for  such  a  sacrifice 
as  you  make.  Baron  Steuben  is  delighted  with  the  place, 
and  charmed  with  the  reception  we  met  with.  Mrs.  Wash 
ington  sets  out  for  camp  about  the  middle  of  this  week. 

In  March,  1781,  Lafayette,  who  was  carrying  on 
operations  in  Virginia  which  resulted  in  the  penning  up 
of  Cornwallis  at  Yorktown,  came  to  Mount  Vernon,  but 
he  was  not  entertained  there  by  the  General  until  he 
returned  to  America  in  1784.  Mrs.  General  Knox  visited 
Mrs.  Washington  at  Mount  Vernon  in  October,  1781, 
while  the  siege  of  Yorktown  was  in  progress. 

Her  active  interest  in  the  sick  and  wounded  made 
Lady  Washington,  as  the  soldiers  liked  to  call  her,  be 
loved  by  the  army.  Her  only  surviving  child,  John 
Parke  Custis,  earned  the  Gold  Service  Star  when  he  died 
near  Yorktown  of  a  fever  contracted  at  the  siege.  Refer 
ring  to  his  death,  Washington  wrote  Lafayette  from 
Mount  Vernon,  where  he  had  returned  for  a  week  in 
November:  "This  unexpected  and  affecting  event  threw 
Mrs.  Washington  and  Mrs.  Custis,  who  were  both 
present,  in  such  deep  distress,  that  the  circumstance  of  it, 
and  a  duty  I  owed  the  deceased  in  assisting  at  his  funeral 
rites,  prevented  my  reaching  this  place  till  the  13th." 
During  this  stay  of  a  week  at  his  home,  Washington 
devoted  much  time  to  catching  up  with  the  arrears  of 
his  correspondence. 

Washington  resigned  his  commission  at  Annapolis, 
December  23,  1783,  and,  once  more  a  private  citizen, 
reached  Mount  Vernon  with  Mrs.  Washington  on 

56 


Christmas  eve.  Relatives  and  friends  had  gathered 
to  welcome  them,  and  the  servants  made  the  night 
gay  with  bonfires,  fiddling  and  dancing.  February 
1,  1784,  Washington  wrote  Lafayette:  "At  length,  my 
dear  Marquis,  I  am  become  a  private  citizen  on  the 
banks  of  Potomac,  and  under  the  shadow  of  my  own  vine 
and  my  own  fig-tree,  free  from  the  bustle  of  a  camp  and 
the  busy  scenes  of  public  life,  I  am  solacing  myself  with 
those  tranquil  enjoyments,  of  which  the  soldier,  who  is 
ever  in  pursuit  of  fame,  the  statesman,  whose  watchful 
days  and  sleepless  nights  are  spent  in  devising  schemes 
to  promote  the  welfare  of  his  own,  perhaps  the  ruin  of 
other  countries,  as  if  this  globe  was  insufficient  for  us  all, 
and  the  courtier,  who  is  always  watching  the  counte 
nance  of  his  prince,  in  hopes  of  catching  a  gracious  smile 
can  have  very  little  conception." 

They  were  so  fast  locked  in  snow  and  ice  after  Christ 
mas  that  it  was  not  until  February  llth  Washington 
was  able  to  go  to  Fredericksburg  to  visit  his  mother;  he  re 
turned  the  19th.  April  12th  Luzerne,  the  French  minister, 
who  was  spending  several  days  at  Mount  Vernon,  wrote 
of  Washington:  "He  dresses  in  a  gray  coat  like  a  Virginia 
farmer,  and  nothing  about  him  recalls  the  recollection  of 
the  important  part  which  he  has  played,  except  the 
great  number  of  foreigners  who  come  to  see  him." 
Lafayette  arrived  in  New  York  from  France  August 
4,  1784,  and  reached  Mount  Vernon  August  17th, 
where  he  remained  twelve  days.  November  14th  Wash 
ington  went  to  Richmond,  met  Lafayette  there,  and  the 
Marquis  returned  to  Mount  Vernon  for  a  second  visit  of 
a  week.  November  29th  Washington  and  Lafayette 
went  to  Annapolis,  where  he  bade  a  final  farewell  to  the 
Marquis. 

The  years  from  1784  to  1789  Washington  called  his 
furlough.  Brissot  de  Warville,  who  visited  Mount 
Vernon  in  1788,  wrote:  "Every thing  has  an  air  of  sim- 

57 


plicity  in  his  house,  his  table  is  good,  but  not  ostentatious, 
and  no  deviation  is  seen  from  regularity  and  domestic 
economy.  Mrs.  Washington  superintends  the  whole, 
and  joins  to  the  qualities  of  an  excellent  housewife  that 
simple  dignity  which  ought  to  characterize  a  woman 
whose  husband  has  acted  the  greatest  part  on  the  theatre 
of  human  affairs;  while  she  possesses  that  amenity,  and 
manifests  that  attention  to  strangers,  which  renders 
hospitality  so  charming."  Thomas  Lee  Shippen  wrote 
from  Mount  Vernon:  "Mrs.  Washington  is  the  very 
essence  of  kindness.  Her  soul  seems  to  overflow  with 
it  like  the  most  abundant  fountain  and  her  happiness  is 
in  exact  proportion  to  the  number  of  objects  upon  which 
she  can  dispense  her  benefits." 

More  than  half  of  the  forty-six  years  of  Washing 
ton's  ownership  of  Mount  Vernon  was  spent  in  the  pub 
lic  service.  In  1798,  near  the  end  of  his  life,  he  wrote: 
"Twenty-five  years  have  passed  away  since  I  have  con 
sidered  myself  a  permanent  resident  beneath  my  own 
roof  at  Mount  Vernon."  During  the  Revolution  Wash 
ington  was  always  looking  forward  to  the  time  when  he 
could  return  to  his  beloved  home.  He  wrote  his  wife : 
"I  should  enjoy  more  real  happiness  in  one  month  with 
you  at  home  than  I  have  the  most  distant  prospect  of 
finding  abroad  if  my  stay  were  to  be  seven  times  seven 
years."  When  it  became  probable  that  he  would  be 
chosen  first  President  of  the  United  States,  he  wrote 
John  Armstrong,  April  25,  1788: 

"I  well  remember  the  observation  you  made  in 
your  letter  to  me  of  last  year,  'that  my  domestic  retire 
ment  must  suffer  an  interruption.'  This  took  place, 
notwithstanding  it  was  utterly  repugnant  to  my  feelings, 
my  interests,  and  my  wishes.  I  sacrificed  every  private 
consideration,  and  personal  enjoyment,  to  the  earnest 
and  pressing  solicitations  of  those,  who  saw  and  knew  the 
alarming  situation  of  our  public  concerns,  and  had  no 

58 


other  end  in  view  but  to  promote  the  interests  of  their 
country;  conceiving  that  under  those  circumstances,  and 
at  so  critical  a  moment,  an  absolute  refusal  to  act  might 
on  my  part  be  construed  as  a  total  disregard  of  my  coun 
try,  if  imputed  to  no  worse  motives.  I  am  so  wedded 
to  a  state  of  retirement,  and  find  the  occupations  of  a 
rural  life  so  congenial  with  my  feelings  that  to  be  drawn 
into  public  at  my  advanced  age  would  be  a  sacrifice, 
that  would  admit  of  no  compensation."  When  he  was 
leaving  to  be  inaugurated  at  New  York,  Washington 
wrote,  April  16,  1789:  "I  bade  adieu  to  Mount  Vernon, 
to  private  life,  and  to  domestic  felicity."  That  Mrs. 
Washington  shared  her  husband's  regret  at  leaving 
Mount  Vernon  is  clear  from  the  following  letter  written 
in  December,  1789:  "I  little  thought  when  the  war  was 
finished  that  any  circumstances  could  possibly  happen 
which  would  call  the  General  into  public  life  again.  I 
had  anticipated  that,  from  that  moment,  we  should  be 
suffered  to  grow  old  together,  in  solitude  and  tranquility. 
That  was  the  first  and  dearest  wish  of  my  heart.  I  will 
not,  however,  contemplate  with  too  much  regret  disap 
pointments  that  were  inevitable ;  though  his  feelings  and 
my  own  were  in  perfect  unison  with  respect  to  our  pre- 
delictions  for  private  life,  yet  I  cannot  blame  him  for 
having  acted  according  to  his  ideas  of  duty  in  obeying 
the  voice  of  his  country.  It  is  owing  to  the  kindness  of 
our  numerous  friends,  in  all  quarters,  that  my  new  and 
unwished  for  situation  is  not,  indeed,  a  burden  to  me. 
When  I  was  much  younger  I  should  probably  have  en 
joyed  the  innocent  gayeties  of  life  as  much  as  most  per 
sons  of  my  age ;  but  I  had  long  since  placed  all  the  pros 
pects  of  my  future  worldly  happiness  in  the  still  enjoy 
ments  of  the  fireside  at  Mount  Vernon."  This  is,  I  believe, 
the  only  letter  in  which  the  wife  of  a  newly-elected  Presi 
dent  expresses  her  regret  at  her  husband's  election. 

During  his  eight  years  as  President  in  New  York 
59 


and  Philadelphia,  Washington  made  such  visits  to 
Mount  Vernon  as  official  duties  permitted,  and  he  al 
ways  thought:  "I  had  rather  be  at  Mount  Vernon 
with  a  friend  or  two  about  me,  than  to  be  attended 
at  the  seat  of  Government  by  the  officers  of  state 
and  representatives  of  every  power  in  Europe."  On 
their  return  to  Mount  Vernon  after  the  Presidency, 
Mrs.  Washington  wrote  Mrs.  Knox:  "We  are  so 
penurious  with  our  enjoyment  that  we  are  loath  to 
share  it  with  any  one  but  dear  friends,  yet  almost  every 
day  some  stranger  claims  a  portion  of  it,  and  we  cannot 
refuse.  The  twilight  is  gathering  around  our  lives.  I 
am  again  fairly  settled  down  to  the  pleasant  duties  of  an 
old-fashioned  Virginia  housekeeper,  steady  as  a  clock, 
busy  as  a  bee,  and  cheerful  as  a  cricket."  She  wrote  Mrs. 
Samuel  Powel,  of  Philadelphia,  that  she  hoped  for  a  visit 
"when  all  things  will  be  blooming  here  in  the  spring 
except  the  withering  proprietors  of  the  mansion." 

Washington  lived  but  two  years  and  nine  months 
after  he  retired  from  the  Presidency,  March  4, 1797.  He 
wrote  General  Knox:  "The  remainder  of  my  life,  which  in 
the  course  of  nature,  cannot  be  long,  will  be  occupied 
in  rural  amusements;  and  though  I  shall  seclude  myself 
as  much  as  possible  from  the  noisy  and  bustling  crowd, 
none  would  more  than  myself  be  regaled  by  the  company 
of  those  I  esteem  at  Mount  Vernon;  more  than  twenty 
miles  from  which,  after  I  arrive  there,  it  is  not  likely  that 
I  shall  ever  be."  Washington  wrote  in  October  1797: 
"An  eight  years  absence  from  home  (excepting  short  oc 
casional  visits)  had  so  deranged  my  private  affairs ;  had 
so  despoiled  my  buildings;  and  in  a  word  had  thrown 
my  domestic  concerns  into  such  disorder;  as  at  no 
period  of  my  life  have  I  been  more  engaged  than  in  the 
last  six  months  to  recover  and  put  them  in  some  tolerable 
train  again."  September  28,  1799,  he  wrote  Lawrence 
Lewis:  "It  is  my  wish  to  place  my  estate  in  this  county  on 

60 


a  new  establishment,  thereby  bringing  it  into  so  narrow  a 
compass  as  not  only  to  supersede  the  necessity  of  a  man 
ager,  but  to  make  the  management  of  what  I  retain  in 
my  own  hands  a  healthy  and  agreeable  amusement  to 
look  after  myself,  if  I  should  not  be  again  called  to  the 
public  service  of  the  country."  Who  does  not  sympa 
thize  with  Washington  when  he  writes  McHenry:  "Al 
though  I  have  not  houses  to  build  (except  one,  which  I 
must  erect  for  the  accommodation  and  security  of  my 
Military,  Civil  and  private  Papers,  which  are  volumi 
nous  and  may  be  interesting)  yet  I  have  not  one,  or 
scarcely  anything  else  about  me  that  does  not  require 
considerable  repairs.  In  a  word,  I  am  already  sur- 
surrounded  by  joiners,  masons,  painters,  etc.,  etc.,  and 
such  is  my  anxiety  to  get  out  of  their  hands,  that  I  have 
scarcely  a  room  to  put  a  friend  into,  or  to  sit  in  myself, 
without  the  music  of  hammers,  or  the  odoriferous  smell 
of  paint."  The  collection  of  Washington's  manuscripts 
is  the  largest  in  the  world  in  the  handwriting  of  one  man, 
and  in  1827  Jared  Sparks,  with  the  permission  of  Judge 
Bushrod  Washington,  who  then  owned  the  estate,  spent 
many  weeks  at  Mount  Vernon  going  over  the  enormous 
mass  of  them  which  were  then  there. 

No  man  loved  his  home  more  than  Washington,  and 
yet  no  man  was  so  ready  to  leave  it  at  his  country's  call. 
I  consider  his  accepting  the  command  of  the  army  in 
1798  the  most  patriotic  act  of  all  his  patriotic  life.  His 
fame  was  bright  and  secure;  he  was  comfortably  es 
tablished  at  Mount  Vernon,  where  the  infirmities  of  age 
were  creeping  upon  him;  he  had  everything  to  lose  and 
nothing  to  gain;  no  man  would  be  shrewder  than  Wash 
ington  in  understanding  this;  yet  he  was  ready  to  sacri 
fice  reputation  and  comfort,  because  he  thought  that  he 
might  serve  his  country.  He  wrote:  "As  my  whole 
life  has  been  dedicated  to  my  country  in  one  shape  or 
another,  for  the  poor  remains  of  it,  it  is  not  an  object  to 

61 


contend  for  ease  and  quiet,  when  all  that  is  valuable  is  at 
stake,  further  than  to  be  satisfied  that  the  sacrifice  I 
should  make  of  these  is  acceptable  and  desired  by  my 
country." 

Washington  would  have  been  touched  by  the  im 
portant  part  which  school  children  have  borne  in  the 
restoration  of  Mount  Vernon.  He  took  an  affectionate 
interest  in  the  bringing  up  of  youth,  and  there  was  no 
philanthropy  for  which  he  opened  his  purse  more  freely 
than  education.  Though  God  left  him  childless  in  order 
that  he  might  be  the  Father  of  his  Country,  fondness  for 
children  was  a  charming  characteristic,  and  the  beautiful 
children  and  grandchildren  of  Mrs.  Washington  added 
joy  to  their  life  at  Mount  Vernon.  Mrs.  Fitzhugh,  Wash 
ington's  niece,  who,  as  a  child,  was  a  frequent  visitor  to 
Mount  Vernon,  said  that  often,  when  at  their  games  in  the 
drawing  room  at  night — perhaps  romping,  dancing  and 
noisy — they  would  see  the  General  watching  their  move 
ments  at  some  side  door,  enjoying  their  sport;  and  if  at 
any  time  his  presence  seemed  to  check  them,  he  would 
beg  them  not  to  mind  him,  but  go  on  just  as  before,  en 
couraging  them  in  every  possible  way  to  continue  their 
amusements  to  their  hearts'  content.  John  Parke  Gustis, 
Mrs.  Washington's  son,  left  four  children,  the  two  young 
est  of  whom  the  General  adopted.  When  in  1824  Lafay 
ette  last  visited  America,  he  told  G.  W.  P.  Gustis  that 
he  has  seen  him  first  on  the  portico  at  Mount  Vernon 
in  1784.  "A  very  little  gentleman,  with  a  feather  in  his 
hat,  holding  fast  to  one  finger  of  the  good  general's  re 
markable  hand,  which  (so  large  that  hand!)  was  all,  my 
dear  sir,  you  could  well  do  at  that  time."  Nelly,  the 
sister  of  George  Washington  Parke  Custis,  used  to  stand 
on  tiptoe  to  hold  the  button  of  the  General's  coat  while 
she  charmed  him  with  her  girlish  confidences.  Nelly 
Gustis  was  married  to  Lawrence  Lewis  at  Mount  Vernon 
on  Washington's  last  birthday.  At  the  wedding  the 

62 


General  wore  his  old  continental  uniform  of  blue  and 
buff,  and  this  was  probably  the  last  time  he  had  it  on. 
The  first  child  of  Nelly  Gustis  was  born  a  few  days  before 
Washington's  death  at  Mount  Vernon.  Both  Nelly 
Gustis  and  her  daughter  rest  at  Mount  Vernon.  When, 
at  the  age  of  seventy-four,  Nelly  Gustis  died,  her  sister 
wrote:  "I  do  not  think  in  all  our  long  intercourse  she  ever 
uttered  a  word  to  me  that  was  not  the  most  perfect  kind- 
ne^ss."  Her  character  had  been  formed  by  Martha 
Washington,  and  the  excellence  of  her  teaching  may  be 
judged  from  the  following  verses  which  Nellie  wrote  on 
the  death  of  her  daughter : 

TO  THE  MEMORY  OF  MY  AGNES. 

"Why,  then,  do  you  grieve  for  me  mother?"  she  cried, 

As  I  painted  the  joys  of  the  blest; 
"Why,  then,  do  yon  grieve,  dearest  child?"  I  replied, 
"Thou  wilt  go  to  a  haven  of  rest." 

For  thee,  my  lost  Angel,  ev'n  death  had  no  sting, 
And  no  terrors,  the  cold,  silent  grave; 
Tho'  thy  Maker  recalled  thee,  in  life's  early  Spring, 
He  resumed  but  the  blessing  He  gave. 

Thy  end  was  so  peaceful,  so  pure  was  thy  life, 
Could  a  wish  now  restore  thee  again, 
'Twere  a  sin  to  expose  thee  to  perils  and  strife, 
To  a  world  of  temptation  and  pain. 

I  cannot  forget,  tho'  I  do  not  repine, 
That  those  eyes  are  now  shrouded  in  death; 
Which  bent  with  the  fondest  affection  on  mine, 
Till  my  darling  resigned  her  last  breath. 

To  adore  thy  Creator  in  spirit  and  truth, 
Submissive  to  bow  to  His  will, 
To  the  close  of  thy  life  from  thy  earliest  youth, 
Thou  didst  then  those  duties  fulfill. 

To  thy  favorite  beech  do  I  often  repair, 
And  I  kiss  on  its  bark  thy  dear  name; 
To  meet  thee  in  heaven  is  ever  my  prayer, 
And  my  last  sigh  shall  murmur  the  same. 

63 


In  spite  of  the  fact  that  his  mother  was  vigorous  to 
an  advanced  age,  Washington  wrote:  "I  am  of  a  short 
lived  family  and  cannot  expect  to  remain  very  long  upon 
the  earth."  A  few  days  before  his  death  he  pointed  out 
to  his  nephew,  Major  Lewis,  the  spot  where  he  intended 
to  build  the  new  family  vault,  saying:  "This  change  I 
shall  make  the  first  of  all  for  I  may  require  it  before  the 
rest."  The  last  entries  in  his  diary  are  as  follows: 
December  12,  1799,  "Morning  cloudy,  wind  at  N.  E. 
and  Mer.  33.  A  large  circle  round  the  moon  last  night. 
About  one  o'clock  it  began  to  snow,  soon  after  to  hail  and 
then  turned  to  a  settled  cold  rain.  Mer.  28  at  night. 
13,  Morning  snowing  and  about  3  inches  deep,  wind 
at  NE.  and  Mer.  at  30  continued  snowing  till  1  o'clock 
and  about  4  it  became  perfectly  clear,  wind  in  the  same 
place  but  not  hard.  Mer.  28  at  night."  These  are  no 
doubt  the  last  words  Washington  wrote.  The  passing 
of  this  great  soul  has  been  described  by  Tobias  Lear,  who 
says  that,  although  Washington  himself  had  been  in  the 
saddle  in  the  storm  most  of  Thursday  the  twelfth,  on  the 
evening  of  which  he  was  stricken  with  his  last  illness,  he 
considered  the  weather  too  bad  to  send  his  servant  to  the 
postoffice.  "Between  2  and  3  o'clock  on  Saturday 
morning  he  awoke  Mrs.  Washington  and  told  her  he  was 
very  unwell  and  had  an  ague.  She  would  have  got  up  to 
call  a  servant ;  but  he  would  not  permit  her  lest  she  should 
take  cold."  He  lay  nearly  four  hours  in  a  chill  in  a  cold 
bedroom  before  anything  was  done  or  a  fire  lighted. 
When  on  his  death  bed, Washington  said  to  Mr.  Lear: 

"I  am  afraid  I  shall  fatigue  you  too  much;  it  is  a 
debt  we  must  pay  to  each  other,  and  I  hope  when  you 
want  aid  of  this  kind,  you  will  find  it."  He  motioned  to 
his  attendant,  Christopher,  who  had  been  standing,  to 
take  a  seat  by  his  bedside.  Washington's  patience, 
fortitude  and  resignation  never  forsook  him  for  a  moment. 
He  said:  "I  am  not  afraid  to  die,  and  therefore  can  bear 

64 


the  worst."  The  clock  which  was  in  the  death  chamber 
marked  the  hour  10.20  P.M.,  when  December  14,  1799, 
the  doctor  cut  the  weights.  On  the  chair  by  the  bedside 
lay  the  open  Bible  from  which  Mrs.  Washington  had 
been  reading  aloud.  When  Mrs.  Washington  was  told 
that  her  husband  was  dead,  she  said:  "Tis  well,  all  is 
now  over;  I  shall  soon  follow  him;  I  have  no  more  trials 
to  pass  through."  Henry  Lee  expressed, in  a  few  beauti 
ful  words,  Washington's  devotion  to  his  wife  when  he 
said  in  his  celebrated  oration:  "To  the  dear  object  of 
his  affections  exemplary  tender."  The  attic  chamber 
with  its  sloping  roof,  which  Mrs.  Washington  occupied 
for  two  years  and  a  half  after  her  husband's  death,  and 
where  she  died,  had  no  fireplace,  but  from  its  window 
she  could  look  out  on  the  tomb.  Consider  how  she  was 
overwhelmed  by  its  majestic  presence  at  all  hours  and 
at  all  seasons ;  how  the  white  radiance  of  eternity  poured 
upon  it  as  she  saw  it  covered  with  snow  by  moonlight. 

George  Washington  has  written  beautiful  words  of 
appreciation  of  the  departed — such,  for  instance,  as  have 
been  placed  on  the  base  of  the  statue  of  Franklin  in 
Philadelphia.  If  he  had  composed  an  epitaph  for  Martha 
Washington,  he  might  have  expressed  himself  as  Sir 
Thomas  Lucy  did,  for  these  words  that  Sir  Thomas  wrote 
of  his  wife  are  exactly  applicable  to  Lady  Washington: 

. 

"All  the  time  of  her  life  a  true  and  faithful  servant 
of  her  good  God ;  never  detected  of  any  crime  or  vice ;  in 
religion  most  sound;  in  love  to  her  husband  most  faith 
ful  and  true;  in  friendship  most  constant;  to  what  in 
trust  was  committed  to  her  most  secret;  in  wisdom  ex 
celling  ;  in  governing  her  house  and  bringing  up  of  youth 
in  the  fear  of  God  that  did  converse  with  her  most  rare 
and  singular.  A  great  maintainer  of  hospitality;  mis- 
liked  of  none,  unless  of  the  envious.  When  all  is  spoken 
that  can  be  said,  a  woman  so  furnished  and  garnished 

65 


with  virtue  as  not  to  be  bettered,  and  hardly  to  be 
equalled  of  any.  As  she  lived  most  virtuously,  so  she 
died  most  godly.  Set  down  by  him  that  best  did  know 
what  hath  been  written  to  be  true." 

The  true  American  at  the  tomb  of  Washington  will 
ponder  on  the  glorious  heritage  he  has  left  us  and  con 
sider  his  own  obligation  to  pass  on  that  heritage  unim 
paired.  He  will  be  thrilled  by  the  awful  presence  of  the 
things  that  are  unseen  and  eternal.  Here  rests  the  dust 
of  the  noblest  man  who  ever  lived,  and  he  was  great 
because  he  consecrated  all  his  magnificent  powers  of 
body,  mind  and  soul  to  the  utmost  performance  of  his 
duty.  No  surer  proof  of  the  Divine  guidance  of  America 
could  be  required  than  this:  In  her  times  of  direst  need 
God  has  never  failed  to  give  our  country  a  man  equal 
to  the  emergency,  and  of  all  these  God-given  men  the 
first  will  always  be  George  Washington.  He  needs  no 
stately  sepulchre,  for  he  is  enshrined  in  our  hearts  and 
his  monument  is  our  Country. 


66 


THE  REGENTS  AND  VICE-REGENTS  OF  THE 

MOUNT  VERNON  LADIES'  ASSOCIATION  OF 

THE  UNION  SINCE  ITS  ORGANIZATION 


MISS  ANN  PAMELA  CUNNINGHAM 

REGENT,  1853-1873 
Resigned  1873;  died  May  1,  1875 

Vice-Regents  Appointed 
1858 

Mrs.  Anna  Cora  Ogden  Ritchie,  resigned  1866 Virginia 

Mrs.  Alice  H.  Dickinson,  resigned  1859 North  Carolina 

Mrs.  Philoclea  Edgeworth  Eve,  died  1889 Georgia 

Mrs.  Octavia  Walton  LeVert,  died  1877 Alabama 

Mrs.  Catherine  A.  MacWillie,  died  1872 Mississippi 

Mrs.  Margaretta  S.  Morse,  resigned  1872 Louisiana 

Mrs.  Mary  Rutledge  Fogg,  died  1872 Tennessee 

Mrs.  Elizabeth  M.  Walton,  resigned  1858 Missouri 

Miss  Mary  Norris  Hamilton,  resigned  1866 New  York 

Mrs.  Louisa  Ingersoll  Greenough,  resigned  1865,Massachusetts 

Mrs.  Abba  Isabella  Little,  resigned  1866 Maine 

Mrs.  Catherine  Willis  Murat,  died  1867 Florida 

Mrs.  Mary  Bootes  Goodrich,  resigned  1864 Connecticut 

Miss  Phebe  Ann  Ogden,  died  1867 New  Jersey 

Mrs.  Alice  Key  Pendleton,  resigned  1863,  died  1865 Ohio 

Mrs.  Abby  Wheaton  Chace,  died  1892 Rhode  Island 

Mrs.  Jane  Maria  Van  Antwerp,  died Iowa 

Mrs.  Margaret  Ann  Comegys,  died  1888 Delaware 

Mrs.  Hannah  Blake  Farnsworth,  died  1879 Michigan 

Mrs.  Sarah  King  Hale,  resigned  1861 New  Hampshire 

Mrs.  Martha  Mitchell,  died  1902 Wisconsin 

Mrs.  Rosa  Vertner  Johnson  Jeffries,  died  1894 Kentucky 

Mrs.  Janet  M.  E.  Riggs,  Acting  Vice-Regent, 

District  of  Columbia 
1859 

Mrs.  Elizabeth  Willard  Barry,  died  1883 Illinois 

Mrs.  Sarah  J.  Sibley,  died  1869 Minnesota 

Mrs.  Mary  Pepperell  Jarvis  Cutts,  resigned  1878 Vermont 

Miss  Lily  Lytle  Macalester,  died  1891 Pennsylvania 

67 


27.  Mrs.  Magdalen  G.  Blanding,  resigned  1884 California 

28.  Mrs.  Harriet  B.  Fitch,  died  1880 Indiana 

29.  Mrs.  Sarah  H.  Johnson,  died  1866 Arkansas 

30.  Mrs.  Letitia  Harper  Walker,  died  1908 North  Carolina 

1860 

31.  Mrs.  Ann  Lucas  Hunt,  died  1878 Missouri 

32.  Mrs.  Mary  Chestnut,  died  1867 North  Carolina 

1866 

33.  Mrs.  Margaret  J.  M.  Sweat,  died  1908 Maine 

34.  Miss  Emily  L.  Harper,  died  1891 Maryland 

35.  Mrs.  Lucy  H.  Pickens,  died  August,  1899 South  Carolina 

36.  Mrs.  M.  E.  Hickman,  resigned  1874 Nevada 

37.  Mrs.  M.  A.  Stearns,  resigned  1873 New  Hampshire 

38.  Mrs.  Emily  R.  M.  Hewson,  resigned  1872 Ohio 

39.  Miss  Ella  Hutchins,  resigned  1872 Texas 

1867 

40.  Mrs.  Janet  M.  C.  Riggs,  resigned  1868. .  .District  of  Columbia 

41.  Mrs.  Maria  Brooks,  resigned  1876 New  York 

42.  Mrs.  Matilda  W.  Emory,  resigned  1873,  District  of  Columbia 

1868 

43.  Mrs.  Nancy  Wade  Halsted,  died  1891 New  Jersey 

44.  Mrs.  Nannie  C.  Yulee,  died  1884 Florida 

1870 

45.  Mrs.  Susan  E.  Johnson  Hudson,  died  1913 Connecticut 

46.  Mrs.  Ella  Bassett  Washington,  died  1898 West  Virginia 

1872 

47.  Mrs.  Betsey  C.  Mason,  died  1873 Virginia 

48.  Mrs.  A.  P.  Dillon,  resigned  1873,  died  1898 Iowa 

49.  Mrs.  C.  L.  Scott,  resigned  1878 Arkansas 

1873 

50.  Mrs.  William  Balfour,  resigned  1875 Mississippi 

51.  Mrs.  Mary  T.  Barnes,  died  1912 District  of  Columbia 

52.  Mrs.  David  Urquehart,  resigned  1876 Louisiana 

53.  Miss  M.  E.  Maverick,  resigned  1873 Texas 

This  was  the  last  appointment  of  Miss  Cunningham,  First  Regent. 

68 


MRS.  LILY  M.  BERGHMAN 

(Made  Acting  Regent,  1873,  and  Regent,  June,  1874) 

SECOND  REGENT 

Died  1891 

Vice-Regents  Appointed 

1874 

54.  Mrs.  Emma  Read  Ball,  died  1918 Virginia 

55.  Mrs.  Aaron  V.  Brown,  died  1889 Tennessee 

1875 

56.  Mrs.  Lily  L.  Broadwell,  died  1889 Ohio 

57.  Mrs.  John  P.  Jones,  resigned  1876 Nevada 

1876 

58.  Mrs.  Jennie  Meeker  Ward,  died  1910 Kansas 

59.  Mrs.  Justine  Van  Rensselaer  Townsend,  died  1912.  .New  York 

1878 

60.  Mrs.  J.  Gregory  Smith,  resigned  1884 Vermont 

1879 

61.  Miss  Alice  M.  Longfellow Massachusetts 

1 62.     Mrs.  Robert  Campbell,  died  1882 Missouri 

1880 

63.  Mrs.  Ida  A.  Richardson,  died  1910 Louisiana 

1882 

64.  Mrs.  Ella  S.  Harbert,  died  1884 Alabama 

1885 

65.  Mrs.  Elizabeth  B.  Adams  Rathbone,  resigned  1918..  .Michigan 

.     Mrs.  Mary  T.  Leiter,  died  1913 Illinois 

.     Mrs.  Janet  Dekay  King,  died  1896 Vermont 

.     Mrs.  Elizabeth  Woodward,  died  1897 Kentucky 

1888 

69.  Miss  Harriet  Clayton  Comegys Delaware 

70.  Mrs.  Fannie  Gilchrist  Baker,  died  1901 Florida 

69 


1889 

71.  Mrs.  Alice  Hill,  died  1908 Colorado 

72.  Mrs.  Rebecca  B.  Flandrau,  died  1912 Minnesota 

73.  Mrs.  Phoebe  A.  Hearst,  resigned  1918 California 

1890 

74.  Mrs.  A.  R.  Winer,  died  1906 New  Hampshire 

1891 

75.  Mrs.  Georgia  Page  Wilder,  died  1914 Georgia 

This  was  the  last  nomination  of  Mrs.  Lily  Macalester  Laughton,) 

Second  Regent  (Madame  Berghman),  who  died 
November  4,  1891. 


MRS.  JUSTINE  VAN  RENSSELAER  TOWNSEND 
THIRD  REGENT 

(Elected  Temporary  Regent,  December,  1891,  and  Regent,  June,  1892.) 

Resigned  May,  1909;  died  April,  1912 

Vice- Regents  Appointed 

1893 

76.  Mrs.  George  R.Goldsborough,resigned  1904,  died  1906, Maryland 

77.  Mrs.  J.  Dundas  Lippincott,  died  1894 Pennsylvania 

78.  Miss  Mary  Lloyd  Pendleton,  resigned  1897 Ohio 

79.  Mrs.  Philip  Schuyler,  resigned  1894 New  York 

80.  Mrs.  Christine  Blair  Graham,  died  1915 Missouri 

81.  Mrs.  Francis  S.  Conover,  died  1914 New  Jersey 

82.  Mrs.  Mary  Polk  Yeatman  Webb,  died  1917 Tennessee 

1894 

83.  Miss  Leila  Herbert,  died  1897 Alabama 

1895 

84.  Mrs.  Robert  H.  Clarkson,  resigned  1900,  died  1902.  .Nebraska 

85.  Mrs.  William  Ames,  died  1904 Rhode  Island 

86.  Miss  Amy  Townsend,  died  1920 New  York 

1896 

87.  Mrs.  Charles  Custis  Harrison. Pennsylvania 

88.  Mrs.  Thomas  S.  Maxey Texas 

70 


1897 

89.  Mrs.  James  E.  Campbell,  resigned  1902 Ohio 

1900 

90.  Mrs.  Robert  D.  Johnston Alabama 

91.  Mrs.  C.  F.  Manderson,  died  1916 Nebraska 

92.  Mrs.  Eugene  Van  Rensselaer West  Virginia 

1901 

93.  Mrs.  John  Julius  Pringle South  Carolina 

94.  Mrs.  William  F.  Barret  (died  December  4,  1920)  .  .Kentucky 

95.  Mrs.  Charles  Denby,  died  December  26,  1906 Indiana 

1905 

96.  Mrs.  Henry  W.  Rogers Maryland 

1907 

97.  Mrs.  Francis  Jones  Ricks,  resigned  1914 Mississippi 

98.  Mrs.  Lewis  Irwin,  died  1915 Ohio 

99.  Mrs.  J.  Carter  Brown Rhode  Island 

100.  Miss  Mary  F.  Failing Oregon 

101.  Mrs.  Eliza  F.  Leary Washington 

1909 

102.  Mrs.  A.  B.  Andrews,  died  1915 North  Carolina 

This  was  the  last  nomination  of  Mrs.   Justine  Van  Rensselaer 

Townsend,  Third  Regent. 


MISS  HARRIET  CLAYTON  COMEGYS 

FOURTH  REGENT 

Elected  May,  1909 

Vice- Regents  Appointed 
1911 

Mrs.  James  Gore  King  Richards Maine 

Miss  Mary  Evarts Vermont 

Mrs.  Antoine  Lentilhon  Foster Delaware 

1912 

Miss  Annie  Ragan  King Louisiana 

Miss  Jane  A.  Riggs District  of  Columbia 

71 


1913 

Mrs.  Horace  Mann  Towner Iowa 

Mrs.  Thomas  P.  Denham Florida 

1914 

Miss  Harriet  L.  Huntress New  Hampshire 

Mrs.  Charles  Eliot  Furness Minnesota 

Mrs.  Benjamin  D.  Walcott Indiana 

Mrs.  Lucien  M.  Hanks Wisconsin 

1915 

Miss  Annie  Burr  Jennings Connecticut 

Mrs.  Willard  Hall  Bradford New  Jersey 

1916 

Mrs.  Charles  Nagel Missouri 

Mrs.  George  A.  Carpenter Illinois 

Miss  Mary  Go  van  Billups Mississippi 

Mrs.  John  V.  Abrahams,  resigned  1921 Kansas 

1919 

Mrs.  William  Ewen  Shipp North  Carolina 

Mrs.  Horton  Pope Colorado 

Mrs.  Charles  J.  Livingood Ohio 

Mrs.  Jefferson  Randolph  Anderson Georgia 

Mrs.  Celsus  Price  Perrie '. Arkansas 

1920 

Mrs.  Horace  Van  Deventer Tennessee 

Mrs.  Charles  S.  Wheeler California 

1921 
Mrs.  William  Ruffin  Coxe. .  Virginia 


72 


FOURTEEN  DAY  USE 

RETURN  TO  DESK  FROM  WHICH  BORROWED 


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Renewed  books  are  subject  to  immediate  recall. 


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